# Whole-Brain Oscillatory and Behavioral Responses to Noninvasive Local Ketamine Uncaging in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex

> **NIH NIH F30** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $37,202

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Over the past decade, the anesthetic agent ketamine has emerged as a promising antidepressant with both fast-
onset and long-acting efficacy. However, the widespread use of ketamine for depression therapy is limited due
to its sedative, hallucinogenic, amnestic, and addictive properties. The whole-brain networks that are responsible
for each of ketamine’s physiologic effects remain unknown. In order to causatively assess which neural
subcircuits and brain regions contribute to ketamine’s antidepressant vs other properties, there is a need for a
method to noninvasively deliver ketamine locally to both cortical and deep targets within the brain. Such a method
could potentially be clinically translated to provide a noninvasive therapy for modulating desired neural circuits
while minimizing off-target effects.
To this end, we have developed a platform of biocompatible nanoparticles that uncage a drug payload upon
ultrasound application. These nanoparticles can be administered intravenously and subsequently activated
within the brain’s vasculature with clinically available focused ultrasound systems. The released drug would then
passively diffuse across the blood brain barrier to achieve their desired effect within the otherwise unperturbed
brain. With the anesthetic propofol, we have shown that we can perform noninvasive spatiotemporally localized
neuromodulation on the order of seconds and millimeters without the need for irreversible methods such as gene
therapy. We further found that our nanoparticles can be used to map whole-brain responses to focal
pharmacologic perturbation, highlighting their potential as a tool for neuroscientific inquiry.
In this proposal, we will utilize ketamine-loaded nanoparticles to locally deliver ketamine to the infralimbic cortex
(IL), a region in which local ketamine administration is known to have antidepressant-like efficacy. We will then
use electrocorticography (ECOG) to quantify how ketamine action in IL entrains cortical gamma and high
frequency oscillations, which are believed to drive plastic changes underlying ketamine’s antidepressant action.
We will then incorporate this knowledge with behavioral studies to assess how these physiologic changes
manifest behaviorally in the rat’s sensitivity to negative valence, which IL is known to modulate. We will also
uncage propofol to selectively silence the IL during systemic ketamine administration with the same physiologic
and behavioral endpoints. Together, this will provide unified physiologic and behavioral insight into the role of IL
for ketamine’s antidepressant efficacy using behavioral paradigms that can be translated into human studies.
We envision that this model could be used to identify brain targets for ketamine to induce the desired psychiatric
effects while reducing unintended side effects. At the same time, our work would validate a potential clinical
therapy for noninvasively delivering ketamine specifically to said targets, providin...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9908255
- **Project number:** 1F30MH119763-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jeffrey Bond Wang
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $37,202
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-15 → 2022-06-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9908255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9908255, Whole-Brain Oscillatory and Behavioral Responses to Noninvasive Local Ketamine Uncaging in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (1F30MH119763-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9908255. Licensed CC0.

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