Imaging-guided focused ultrasound-induced thermal and sonodynamic effects of nanosonosensitizers for synergistic enhancement of glioblastoma therapy

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a deadly brain tumor with poor prognosis and high mortality in patients. Given the low efficacy and serious side effects of current GBM therapy compared to those of conventional surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, the development of a novel method for GBM management is very urgent. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has gained considerable attention in GBM therapy due to the advantages of deep tissue penetration and high biosafety. However, the low reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation efficacy of SDT has generally limited further applications and clinical translation. In this work, we report the simultaneous application of focused ultrasound-induced moderate thermal treatment (42 °C) and SDT for synergistic enhancement against GBM. Manganese ion (Mn2+)-chelated human serum albumin (HSA)-chlorin e6 (Ce6) nanoassemblies (HCM NAs) as targeting nanosonosensitizers were prepared using an assembly strategy. Our studies indicated that the HCM NAs had excellent T1-weighted contrast performance (12.2 mM-1 s-1) compared to that of clinically used Magnevist (4.3 mM-1 s-1) and achieved highly selective in vitro cell recognition and in vivo tumor-targeting magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence (FL) imaging with a signal-to-background ratio of 13.5 at 24 h post injection. Upon imaging-guided focused ultrasound irradiation, the temperature and reactive oxygen species (ROS) content of the tumor region increased simultaneously over time, achieving synergistic effects. The brain tumors were completely suppressed in subcutaneous mouse models of glioma, and the antitumor effect was greatly improved in orthotopic mouse models of glioma. It suggest that the synergistic treatment with moderate temperature and SDT induced by imaging-guided focused ultrasound is a promising platform against GMB, holds great potential in clinical settings.