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Differential cytotoxicity and sonosensitization by sanazole: effect of cell type and acoustic parameters

Journal of Medical Ultrasonics volume 38, pages 65–72 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Although sanazole has been used as a hypoxic radiosensitizer, we recently reported on its ability to sensitize U937 cells to hyperthermia and X-irradiation under aerobic conditions, enhancing apoptotic cell death following the combined treatment. The current study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of sanazole as a sonosensitizer under previously studied acoustic conditions of different pulse repetition frequencies, using two cell lines representative of solid tumours and haematopoietic cancers.

Methods

Cells were treated with different doses of sanazole. Flow-cytometric analysis and DNA fragmentation assay were carried out at different times, and morphological features were also inspected. For ultrasound treatment, cells were pre-incubated with a non-cytotoxic dose of sanazole for 30 min before exposure. Evaluation of cell killing and a parallel examination of intracellular oxidative stress levels in both cell lines were performed using flow cytometry.

Results

Sanazole alone displayed selective cytotoxic effects towards solid tumour-derived cancer cells, resulting in complete cell death after 24 h of treatment, and enhanced the ultrasound-induced cell killing 6 h post-treatment. The enhancement seemed to be mediated by an additive increase in intracellular oxidative stress levels.

Conclusion

Sanazole seems to be an efficient cytotoxic agent for the treatment of solid tumours and a promising sonosensitizer under aerobic conditions.

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Acknowledgments

Part of this work was supported by the Research and Development Committee Program of the Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine, and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 20590765) (to MM) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiological Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Sugitani 2630, Toyama, 930-0194, Japan

    Mariame A. Hassan, Yukihiro Furusawa, Qing-Li Zhao & Takashi Kondo

  2. Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr Al-Aini str., 11562, Cairo, Egypt

    Mariame A. Hassan

  3. Division of Molecular Genetic Research, Life Science Research Center, University of Toyama, Sugitani 2630, Toyama, 930-0194, Japan

    Ichiro Takasaki

  4. Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Nanakuma, Fukuoka, 814-0180, Japan

    Loreto B. Feril Jr. & Katsuro Tachibana

  5. Laboratory of Biomedical Instrumentation and Measurement, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0814, Japan

    Nobuki Kudo

  6. Department of Gastroenterology and Hematology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Sugitani 2630, Toyama, 930-0194, Japan

    Masami Minemura & Toshiro Sugiyama

Authors
  1. Mariame A. Hassan
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  2. Yukihiro Furusawa
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  3. Qing-Li Zhao
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  5. Loreto B. Feril Jr.
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  7. Nobuki Kudo
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  9. Toshiro Sugiyama
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  10. Takashi Kondo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takashi Kondo.

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Cite this article

Hassan, M.A., Furusawa, Y., Zhao, QL. et al. Differential cytotoxicity and sonosensitization by sanazole: effect of cell type and acoustic parameters. J Med Ultrasonics 38, 65–72 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-010-0295-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-010-0295-2

Keywords

  • Apoptosis
  • Pulse repetition frequency
  • Sanazole
  • Sonosensitizer
  • Ultrasound