Preclinical Applications and Parameter Optimization of Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound Therapy in Neurological Diseases: A Review.

Neurological diseases pose a devastating threat to human health with an increasingly substantial social and economic burden. Developing effective and safe preventive and therapeutic approaches for disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy remains a challenge in clinical practice. Compared to pharmacological treatments, non-invasive physical stimulation techniques directly modulate neural circuits and have emerged as promising methods for alleviating neurological impairments. Among them, low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has demonstrated beneficial effects across various neurological disorders, with merits of non-invasiveness, high spatial resolution and great penetration rate. The present review summarizes recent pre-clinical studies on the application of LIPUS in several key neurological diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, ischemic stroke, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and vascular dementia, discusses the potential cellular and molecular signaling pathways underlying LIPUS-induced neuromodulation, and provides insights into the optimization of stimulation parameters. Collectively, these findings highlight the potential of LIPUS as a novel and promising therapeutic strategy for neurological deficits.