Investigation of the mechanisms of oxygen delivery and cell death in oxygen-enhanced sonodynamic therapy

Thesis

Sonodynamic therapy, which is usually defined as ultrasound-mediated activation of certain drugs, is of substantial interest in the field of oncology. However, currently there is no consensus on the mechanisms of its action, and elucidating them would assist in the transition of sonodynamic therapy into clinical practice. There is a discrepancy between the observed low quantities of reactive oxygen species produced by drugs combined with ultrasound and the substantial in vivo effects seen in a number of studies; in addition, for oxygen-enhanced sonodynamic therapy, there is also a mismatch between the low dose of oxygen transported by the carrier agents and the observed improvements in therapy outcomes. The overall goal of this thesis was to investigate these discrepancies. Hypotheses were proposed to explain both mismatches, and new setups and experiments were designed to test them, resulting in a better understanding of oxygen-enhanced sonodynamic therapy mechanisms.

Authors: Vasilyeva, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-445knpve5
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: targeted drug delivery; hypoxia; oxygen delivery; sonodynamic therapy; targeted therapy; therapeutic ultrasound; ultrasound
• Subjects: Life sciences; MPLS standard