Optoacoustic properties of Doxorubicin - A pilot study

• Published in: PloS one 2019-05, Vol.14 (5), p.e0217576
• Main Authors: Kimm, Melanie A, Gross, Claudia, Déan-Ben, Xose Luis, Ron, Avihai, Rummeny, Ernst J, Lin, Hsiao-Chun Amy, Höltke, Carsten, Razansky, Daniel, Wildgruber, Moritz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biological properties; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomedical engineering; Breast cancer; Cell cycle; Cell Line, Tumor - transplantation; Clinical medicine; Disease Models, Animal; Doxorubicin; Doxorubicin - administration & dosage; Doxorubicin - analogs & derivatives; Doxorubicin - chemistry; Drug metabolism; Electrical engineering; Feasibility Studies; Female; Fluorescence; Humans; Hydrogels; Image resolution; Information technology; Injections, Intralesional; Laboratories; Medical imaging; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolism; Mice; Microscopy; Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Photoacoustic Techniques - methods; Physical Sciences; Pilot Projects; Polyethylene Glycols - administration & dosage; Polyethylene Glycols - chemistry; Research and Analysis Methods; Studies; Substrates; Theranostic Nanomedicine - methods; Tissues; Tomography; Tomography - methods; Toxicology; Tumors; Ultrasonic imaging
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217576

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a widely used chemotherapeutic anticancer drug. Its intrinsic fluorescence properties enable investigation of tumor response, drug distribution and metabolism. First phantom studies in vitro showed optoacoustic property of DOX. We therefore aimed to further investigate the optoacoustic properties of DOX in biological tissue in order to explore its potential as theranostic agent. We analysed doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox·HCl) and liposomal encapsulated doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox·Lipo), two common drugs for anti-cancer treatment in clinical medicine. Optoacoustic measurements revealed a strong signal of both doxorubicin substrates at 488 nm excitation wavelength. Post mortem analysis of intra-tumoral injections of DOX revealed a detectable optoacoustic signal even at three days after the injection. We thereby demonstrate the general feasibility of doxorubicin detection in biological tissue by means of optoacoustic tomography, which could be applied for high resolution imaging at mesoscopic depths dictated by effective penetration of visible light into the biological tissues.