Ultrasound-Triggered Drug Release from Hydrogel Microspheres with Release Booster

This paper describes ultrasound-triggered drug release from hydrogel microspheres with release booster. As a drug carrier, calcium alginate hydrogel microspheres containing drug model and tungsten particles were fabricated by using a centrifugal microfluidic device. The tungsten particles with high acoustic impedance enable the hydrogel microspheres to have high sensitivity to ultrasound so that the release rate of the drug models improves. By applying ultrasound to the hydrogel microspheres, we confirmed the release of fluorescent silica nanoparticles and protein as a drug model. Importantly, the drug model was released from our hydrogel microspheres even in a cavitation-suppressed environment, indicating that this system could reduce the damage to tissues. Our proposed ultrasound-triggered drug release system using tungsten particles would be an effective on-demand drug delivery system (DDS).