An evaluation of the sonoporation potential of low-boiling point phase-change ultrasound contrast agents in vitro.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Fix, Samantha M. Novell, Anthony Yun, Yeoheung Dayton, Paul A. Arena, Christopher B.
Abstract	Background Phase-change ultrasound contrast agents (PCCAs) offer a solution to the inherent limitations associated with using microbubbles for sonoporation; they are characterized by prolonged circulation lifetimes, and their nanometer-scale sizes may allow for passive accumulation in solid tumors. As a first step towards the goal of extravascular cell permeabilization, we aim to characterize the sonoporation potential of a low-boiling point formulation of PCCAs in vitro. Methods Parameters to induce acoustic droplet vaporization and subsequent microbubble cavitation were optimized in vitro using high-speed optical microscopy. Sonoporation of pancreatic cancer cells in suspension was then characterized at a range of pressures (125–600 kPa) and pulse lengths (5–50 cycles) using propidium iodide as an indicator molecule. Results We achieved sonoporation efficiencies ranging from 8 ± 1% to 36 ± 4% (percent of viable cells), as evidenced by flow cytometry. Increasing sonoporation efficiency trended with increasing pulse length and peak negative pressure. Conclusions We conclude that PCCAs can be used to induce the sonoporation of cells in vitro, and our results warrant further investigation into the use of PCCAs as extravascular sonoporation agents in vivo. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40349-017-0085-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC5260003&blobtype=pdf
Volume Number	5
DOI	10.1186/s40349-017-0085-z
PubMed Central reference number	PMC5260003
PubMed reference number	28127427
Journal	Journal of Therapeutic Ultrasound [J Ther Ultrasound]
e-ISSN	20505736
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2017-01-24
Publisher Place	London
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. © The Author(s). 2017
Subject Keyword	Sonoporation Ultrasound Drug delivery Acoustic droplet vaporization Nanodroplet
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging