This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurological disorders associated with later life, and its prevalence rises sharply with age. It affects the brain systems that control movement, often causing tremor, stiffness, slowness and problems with balance, all of which can reduce independence and quality of life in older adults.
The condition is mainly linked to the gradual loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells. Current treatment usually relies on medicines such as levodopa, which can improve symptoms, especially in the earlier stages, but their benefit may become less consistent over time. For some patients, deep brain stimulation (DBS) offers another option, yet this involves surgery to place electrodes deep inside the brain.
These limitations continue to motivate the search for neuromodulation approaches that are both precise and less invasive. Lei Sun, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Sports Technology and director of the Research Center for Non-invasive Brain Computer Interface at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and his research team address the need for such approaches by combining low-intensity ultrasound with engineered hollow silica nanostructures (HSN) to achieve chronic, localized brain stimulation in mice, as well as therapeutic benefit in Parkinson's disease models. The research, titled "Sono-mechanical nanostructures-enabled sustained precise ultrasound brain stimulation," is published in Nature Communications.
The principal advancement of this work is the demonstration that ultrasound neuromodulation can be made both spatially precise and durable through the use of stable, sonoresponsive nanostructures. Conventional transcranial ultrasound is attractive because it penetrates deeply and can be delivered noninvasively, but its spatial resolution is typically limited to millimeter or centimeter scales, making selective activation of small neuronal populations difficult. Earlier nanoparticle- or nanobubble-assisted approaches improved localization, but their in vivo instability limited usefulness for chronic applications.
In contrast, the HSN developed by Sun and his team persisted in the mouse brain for more than nine weeks while remaining functionally responsive to ultrasound. This enabled repeated stimulation of targeted regions, including the motor cortex, striatum, ventral tegmental area (VTA) and subthalamic nucleus (STN), without genetic modification and without repeated intracranial administration. To understand how the treatment worked, the team examined dopamine activity in brain circuits linked to movement.
Ultrasound stimulation of the HSN-targeted STN increased dopamine signaling, suggesting that the approach activated pathways affected in Parkinson's disease. Treated mice also showed better preservation of dopamine-related neurons. Similar benefits were seen in a second Parkinson's model, indicating that this ultrasound-based method may achieve some DBS-like effects without implanted electrodes.
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