Correlation between sonochemistry of surfactant solutions and human leukemia cell killing by ultrasound and porphyrins

The synergistic effect of ultrasound and drugs on cells is known as sonodynamic therapy. The use of sonodynamic therapy for the potential clinical treatment of certain tumors is promising, however, the mechanism of sonodynamic therapy could be due to either sonomechanical and/or sonochemical effects on the cells. The aim of the current study is to determine the importance of the sonochemical mechanism for sonodynamic therapy. Sonochemical effects arise from the formation of radical species following collapse of cavitation bubbles. The synergistic effect of ultrasound (47 kHz) and analogues of a gallium-porphyrin derivative (ATX-70) on cytolysis of Human leukemia cells (HL-525 and HL-60) suspended in a cell culture medium were studied. Organic surfactants preferentially accumulate and subsequently decompose at the gas/solution interface of cavitation bubbles, producing secondary radicals that can diffuse to the bulk solution. The gallium porphyrin analogues used in the current study possess two n-alkyl side chains (ATX-Cx, where X = number of carbon atoms, ranging from X = 2 to X = 12). By varying the n-alkyl chain length, thereby modifying the surfactant properties of the ATX-Cx derivatives, cell killing in relation to the accumulation of ATX-Cx derivatives at the gas/solution interface of cavitation bubbles was determined. Following sonolysis in the presence of ATX-Cx, a strong correlation for the yield of carbon-centered radicals and cell killing was observed. These results support the hypothesis that a sonochemical mechanism is responsible for the synergistic effect of ultrasound and ATX-Cx on HL-525 and HL-60 cells.