NCT05947656

Evaluation of the NaviFUS System in Drug Resistant Epilepsy

An Open-label, Non-randomized, Single-arm Pilot Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Multiple Pulsed Focused Ultrasound Treatment in Patients With Drug Resistant Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 18 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Genovate-NaviFUS (Australia) Pty Ltd. · Industry
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Participants with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) enrolled in this study will receive focused ultrasound (FUS) treatment with the NaviFUS System, guided by the neuronavigation system to evaluate the safety and efficacy of using NaviFUS System. During the treatment, the FUS will electronically scan and target to the assigned zones on one or both of the hippocampi. The study consists of a 60-day screening period for baseline observation prior to treatment, a FUS treatment period of 2 weeks for Cohort 1 or 3 weeks for Cohort 2 with 2 FUS treatments per week using the NaviFUS System, and a safety follow-up period of 81 days.

Detailed description

Up to 30% of patients with epilepsy are resistant to current anti-seizure medications, i.e. drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). Resective surgery of the epileptogenic regions is the most effective option to treat patients with DRE. Unfortunately, up to 60% of DRE patients are not suitable for resective surgery. Neuromodulation approaches are increasingly being utilized in patients with DRE. The current approved techniques use invasive neuromodulation, which require complex neurosurgery and could cause side effects, such as infection, bleeding, and non-target brain tissue damage. Focused ultrasound is a novel, noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with epilepsy. NaviFUS System (a neuro-navigation guided focused ultrasound system) is one of the FUS technologies that uses low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) phased array system to deliver transcranial burst-mode ultrasound energy to induce neuromodulation effect and block signals in a specific area of the brain that cause symptoms of epilepsy such as seizures. The pilot clinical study has demonstrated that NaviFUS System safely delivered LIFU to the seizure onset zone and modulated the neuronal activity.

Conditions

• Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe
• Drug Resistant Epilepsy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	NaviFUS System	NaviFUS System (Neuronavigation-Guided Focused Ultrasound System) is a new non-invasive device, which uses the neuronavigation principle to guide focused ultrasound (FUS) energy precisely delivering through the skull to selected brain tissues without surgery in real-time. In this clinical study, the NaviFUS System is intended to deliver low intensity FUS to generate neuromodulation effects on a predetermined treatment region (one or both of the hippocampi which are associated with seizure), for the treatment for drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-10-02
• Primary completion: 2026-07-01
• Completion: 2026-07-01
• First posted: 2023-07-17
• Last updated: 2025-07-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Australia