Nanosensitizers for sonodynamic therapy for glioblastoma multiforme: current progress and future perspectives

Abstract

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor, and it is associated with poor prognosis. Its characteristics of being highly invasive and undergoing heterogeneous genetic mutation, as well as the presence of the blood–brain barrier (BBB), have reduced the efficacy of GBM treatment. The emergence of a novel therapeutic method, namely, sonodynamic therapy (SDT), provides a promising strategy for eradicating tumors via activated sonosensitizers coupled with low-intensity ultrasound. SDT can provide tumor killing effects for deep-seated tumors, such as brain tumors. However, conventional sonosensitizers cannot effectively reach the tumor region and kill additional tumor cells, especially brain tumor cells. Efforts should be made to develop a method to help therapeutic agents pass through the BBB and accumulate in brain tumors. With the development of novel multifunctional nanosensitizers and newly emerging combination strategies, the killing ability and selectivity of SDT have greatly improved and are accompanied with fewer side effects. In this review, we systematically summarize the findings of previous studies on SDT for GBM, with a focus on recent developments and promising directions for future research.

Mapping knowledge landscapes and emerging trends of sonodynamic therapy: A bibliometric and visualized study

“…Nevertheless, most of these sonosensitizers has short half-life, poor in vivo targeting and water solubility, making it difficult to be enriched at the tumor site. With remarkable advancements in nanotechnology, nanomaterials have been introduced as an alternative route to overcome the above issues of traditional sonosensitizers and increasing number of nano-sonosensitizers have been designed and widely used recently ( Guo et al, 2022 ). As for ultrasound, studies mainly concentrated on ultrasound setting parameters including frequency, intensity, transducer geometry, coupling media, as well as other experimental conditions that could affect reproducibility and transferability ( Secomski et al, 2017 ; Araújo Martins et al, 2021 ; Tamboia et al, 2022 ).…”

“…To date, several studies have demonstrated that many chemical products such as porphyrin and its derivatives, cisplatin, fluoroquinolone agents, etc., were able to act as sonosensitizers ( Chen et al, 2014 ; Pang et al, 2016 ). Meanwhile, with the rapid advancement of nanotechnology in recent years, certain rationally designed biocompatible nanomaterials have shown great potential in SDT, which further motivated the development of SDT against cancer ( Qian et al, 2016 ; Mohapatra et al, 2021 ; Guo et al, 2022 ; Zhu et al, 2022 ).…”

Ionizable drug delivery systems for efficient and selective gene therapy

“…Moreover, tumor selectivity can be further enhanced by protonation of ionizable carriers in the acidic environment outside glioma cells. Sonodynamic therapy [ 172 ] and radiation therapy [ 172 ] for glioblastoma have been studied extensively in the past. Nowadays, IDDSs are expected to provide better therapeutic results.…”

Emerging nanosonosensitizers augment sonodynamic-mediated antimicrobial therapies

“…Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) refers to sonochemical or sonophotochemical events in the acoustic field that result in cytotoxicity dependent on the sensitizer [ 21 ]. US-mediated SDT has already been used as a well-established anti-tumor treatment strategy [ [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] ], which can promote tumor cell killing by accredited mechanisms, including the generation of ROS and ultrasonic cavitation [ 26 ]. Recently, US-mediated SDT has been applied in antimicrobial therapy [ 27 ].…”