Ultrasonic Ketamine Uncaging for Non-Opioid Therapy of Chronic Pain

The next study is a wild one. They have used Focused Ultrasound (tFUS) to unlock an engineered molecular cage carrying a small-molecule drug so that the drug is only released in a precise region of the brain (to millimeter-scale). This can verify the mechanism of action in that particular brain region while avoiding systemic exposure and its side effects. They have shown this to work in animal models, delivering higher doses than systemic ketamine administration, and just to the targeted brain region. See charts below.