ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Nanobiotechnology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1704679
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Nanomedicine: Revolutionizing Healthcare with Nanoscale InnovationsView all 5 articles
Ultrasound-responsive phase-transitional nanomedicine enables intensity-tunable postoperative analgesia
Provisionally accepted- The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
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Introduction: Effective handling of pain after surgery is a major clinical issue, since insufficient pain relief is associated with extended recovery, excessive opioid use, and increased healthcare. Current approaches are limited by the short duration of local anesthetics, opioid-related adverse effects, and the lack of dynamic adjustability in pain relief. Here we report a theranostic nanoplatform, Rg3-liposomes@DMSN-levobupivacaine-PFP (RDLP), which integrates ultrasound-triggered phase transition, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging, and intensity-tunable drug release to address these limitations. Methods: RDLP features a core-shell architecture: dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DMSN) encapsulate the local anesthetic levobupivacaine and the phase-transition agent perfluoropentane (PFP), with a biocompatible Rg3-liposome coating enhancing stability and reducing drug leakage. Upon ultrasound irradiation, PFP undergoes liquid-to-gas phase transition, generating microbubbles that amplify CEUS signals for real-time visualization of drug distribution and drive inertial cavitation to trigger burst release of levobupivacaine. This design achieves high levobupivacaine encapsulation efficiency and enables spatiotemporally controlled release, with ultrasound accelerating drug release kinetics in vitro. Results: RDLP combined with ultrasound prolonged analgesia compared to free levobupivacaine and enabled on-demand adjustment of pain relief intensity via multiple ultrasound irradiation cycles, restoring paw withdrawal thresholds and latencies to near-baseline levels in vivo. The platform exhibits exceptional biocompatibility, with no histopathological damage to sciatic nerves. Discussion: RDLP bridges imaging guidance and therapeutic intervention, leveraging ultrasound's deep tissue penetration and Rg3's natural biocompatibility to overcome limitations of conventional nerve blocks and light-triggered systems. This non-invasive, adjustable strategy offering potential to reduce opioid reliance and improve patient outcomes in perioperative care.
Keywords: Ultrasound-triggered release, Phase Transition, Postoperative analgesia, theranostics, Nanoplatform
Received: 13 Sep 2025; Accepted: 10 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song, Feng, Chen and Luan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hao Chen, lnchenhao1201@126.com
Yong Luan, cclyyly@163.com
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