First-in-human prospective trial of sonobiopsy in high-grade glioma patients using neuronavigation-guided focused ultrasound

Jinyun Yuan; Lu Xu; Chih-Yen Chien; Yaoheng Yang; Yimei Yue; Siaka Fadera; Andrew H. Stark; Katherine E. Schwetye; Arash Nazeri; Rupen Desai; Umeshkumar Athiraman; Aadel A. Chaudhuri; Hong Chen; Eric C. Leuthardt

doi:10.1038/s41698-023-00448-y

npj Precision Oncology (Sep 2023)

First-in-human prospective trial of sonobiopsy in high-grade glioma patients using neuronavigation-guided focused ultrasound

Jinyun Yuan,
Lu Xu,
Chih-Yen Chien,
Yaoheng Yang,
Yimei Yue,
Siaka Fadera,
Andrew H. Stark,
Katherine E. Schwetye,
Arash Nazeri,
Rupen Desai,
Umeshkumar Athiraman,
Aadel A. Chaudhuri,
Hong Chen,
Eric C. Leuthardt

Affiliations

Jinyun Yuan: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Lu Xu: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Chih-Yen Chien: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Yaoheng Yang: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Yimei Yue: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Siaka Fadera: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Andrew H. Stark: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Katherine E. Schwetye: Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine
Arash Nazeri: Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine
Rupen Desai: Department of Neurosurgery, Washington University School of Medicine
Umeshkumar Athiraman: Department of Anesthesia, Washington University School of Medicine
Aadel A. Chaudhuri: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Hong Chen: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
Eric C. Leuthardt: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-023-00448-y
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Sonobiopsy is an emerging technology that combines focused ultrasound (FUS) with microbubbles to enrich circulating brain disease-specific biomarkers for noninvasive molecular diagnosis of brain diseases. Here, we report the first-in-human prospective trial of sonobiopsy in high-grade glioma patients to evaluate its feasibility and safety in enriching plasma circulating tumor biomarkers. A nimble FUS device integrated with a clinical neuronavigation system was used to perform sonobiopsy following an established clinical workflow for neuronavigation. Analysis of blood samples collected before and after FUS sonication showed that sonobiopsy enriched plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), including a maximum increase of 1.6-fold for the mononucleosome cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments (120–280 bp), 1.9-fold for the patient-specific tumor variant ctDNA level, and 5.6-fold for the TERT mutation ctDNA level. Histological analysis of surgically resected tumors confirmed the safety of the procedure. Transcriptome analysis of sonicated and nonsonicated tumor tissues found that FUS sonication modulated cell physical structure-related genes. Only 2 out of 17,982 total detected genes related to the immune pathways were upregulated. These feasibility and safety data support the continued investigation of sonobiopsy for noninvasive molecular diagnosis of brain diseases.

Published in npj Precision Oncology

ISSN: 2397-768X (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Medicine: Internal medicine: Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens
Website: https://www.nature.com/npjprecisiononcology/

About the journal