Enhancement of doxorubicin effect on cancer cell mortality with ultrasound and microbubbles

Doxorubicin is an important potent anti-cancer drug and is used for the treatment of various malignancies. Although its effectiveness is proved, its adverse effects are regarded as a problem. Ultrasound and microbubbles are considered as a potent method to enhance doxorubicin effect by reducing the dose of administered drug and thus its side effects. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that the effect of doxorubicin is enhanced when it is co-administered with microbubbles and insonified with low intensity ultrasound (US). We evaluate the benefit of co-administration in enhancing cell mortality using anti-cancer drug doxorubicin and U87MG cells (human glioma cells). Four experimental microbubble types were investigated: SonoVue, BR14, Vevo Micromarker® (MM1) and Polylactide Shelled (Philips) microbubbles.