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Ultrasound-triggered release of sinoporphyrin sodium from liposome-microbubble complexes and its enhanced sonodynamic toxicity in breast cancer

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Abstract

Applying ultrasound (US) to drug delivery and disease therapy is important work. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT)—a comprehensive therapy using US and a sonosensitizer—exhibits antineoplastic activity in many tumors. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using a new sonosensitizer (sinoporphyrin sodium, DVDMS) loaded into liposome–microbubble complexes (DLMBs) as a possible candidate to enhance SDT against breast cancer. DLMBs were synthesized via the biotin–avidin linkage and confirmed to have good US response. US-induced cavitation played a key role to trigger a boosted payload release from DLMBs and improve the cellular uptake and intratumoral diffusion of DVDMS to realize better SDT effect. The combination of DLMBs and US treatment resulted in significant changes to cell morphology, mitochondria damage, and cell apoptosis in vitro. In vivo, the combined treatment markedly inhibited tumor growth, which appeared to result from increased apoptosis and reduced proliferation activity. The significant increase in the antitumor effect of DLMBs plus US suggests their potential use as a new approach to promote the killing activity of SDT against breast cancer.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81472846 and 81571834), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016M600684), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. GK201602003), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (No. 2017JM8004).

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  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry, National Engineering Laboratory for Resource Developing of Endangered Chinese Crude Drugs in Northwest of China, College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710119, China

    Yixiang Li, Huanxiao An, Xiaobing Wang, Pan Wang, Fei Qu, Yan Jiao, Kun Zhang & Quanhong Liu

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  1. Yixiang Li
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  2. Huanxiao An
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  3. Xiaobing Wang
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  4. Pan Wang
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Correspondence to Pan Wang or Quanhong Liu.

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Li, Y., An, H., Wang, X. et al. Ultrasound-triggered release of sinoporphyrin sodium from liposome-microbubble complexes and its enhanced sonodynamic toxicity in breast cancer. Nano Res. 11, 1038–1056 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1719-8

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