Nitric oxide pre-treatment enhances atheroma component highlighting in vivo with ICAM-1 targeted echogenic liposomes

We present an ultrasound technique to detect the inflammatory changes in developing atheroma. We used contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging (CEUS) with 1) ICAM-1 targeted microbubbles, a molecule of adhesion involved in the inflammatory processes into the lesions of atheroma in New Zealand White rabbits, 2) a pre-treatment with NO-loaded microbubbles and US activation at the site of the endothelium in order to enhance the permeability of the arterial wall and the penetration of the ICAM-1 targeted microbubbles. Following this procedure, the acoustic enhancement is increased by 1.2 fold. NO-ELIP pretreatment with ultrasound activation can potentially facilitate the subsequent penetration of targeted ELIP into the arterial wall, thus allowing improved detection of inflammatory changes in developing atheroma.