Gold nanoparticle-induced sonosensitization enhances the antitumor activity of ultrasound in colon tumor-bearing mice

Purpose: As a noninvasive and nonionizing radiation, ultrasound can be focused remotely, transferring acoustic energy deep in the body, thereby addressing the penetration depth barrier of the light-based therapies. In cancer therapy, the effectiveness of ultrasound can be enhanced by utilizing nanomaterials that exhibit sonosensitizing properties called as nanosonosensitizers. The gold nanoparticle (AuNP) has been recently presented as a potent nanosonosensitizer with the potential to simultaneously enhance both the thermal and mechanical interactions of ultrasound with the tissue of the human body. Accordingly, this paper attempts to evaluate the in vivo antitumor efficiency of ultrasound in combination with AuNP. Methods: BALB/c mice-bearing CT26 colorectal tumor model was intraperitoneally injected with AuNPs and then subjected to ultrasound irradiation (1 MHz; 2 W/cm²; 10 min) for three sessions. Furthermore, [¹⁸F]FDG (2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-d-glucose) positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging was performed and the radiomic features from different feature categorizes were extracted to quantify the tumors’ phenotype. Results: The tumors were dramatically shrunk and the mice appeared healthy over 21 days of study span without the evidence of relapse. The animals treated with AuNP + ultrasound exhibited an obvious decline in tumor metabolic parameters such as standard uptake value (SUV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), and metabolic tumor volume (MTV) compared to other treatment groups. Conclusion: These findings support the use of AuNP as a potent sonosensitizing agent with the potential to use the thermal and mechanical effects of ultrasound so as to cause damage to the focused tumor site, resulting in an improved antitumor efficacy.