MRI-guided Intraarterial Catheter-based Method for Predicting Territory of Local Blood Brain Barrier Opening

Unmet Need: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a major hurdle to therapeutic agents reaching the brain. Osmolar agents can be used to create openings in the BBB, but this technique is clinically limited because of wide variability in the size and location of the resulting openings. JHU inventors have developed a system and highly controlled procedure to meet the significant unmet need of predictable creation of therapeutically effective BBB openings order to administer effective and localized treatment.

• Predictable procedure provides added control and reproducibility of BBB openings opening created by osmotic agents which can be targeted to specific brain regions
• Procedure validated by real-time non-invasive MRI methods
 
Technology Overview:  JHU scientists developed a real time method of using MRI-guided intra-arterial catheters to administer an osmotic agent and a contrast agent to identify and determine a transcatheter perfusion area in the BBB which would be an optimal BBB opening position to administer therapeutics to the brain. To perform this therapeutic method. JHU scientists developed a computer-implemented system for modeling an optimized BBB opening which includes an intra-arterial catheter for perfusing the BBB with a hyperosmolar agent, a real time MR imaging device for visualizing BBB perfusion. The system uses user- input data to construct a model for optimized BBB opening.
 
Stage of Development: Pre-clinical animal data

Publications: J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2016 Mar;36(3):569-75

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