Transformation of theranostic alginate-based microbubbles from raspberry-like to core-shell-like microbubbles and in vitro studies

Meng-Yi Bai; Tsai-Hsuan Chen; Yu-Chi Wang; Yu-Ju Lai

doi:10.1039/d2ra06298d

Transformation of theranostic alginate-based microbubbles from raspberry-like to core-shell-like microbubbles and in vitro studies

RSC Adv. 2022 Nov 8;12(49):31943-31949. doi: 10.1039/d2ra06298d. eCollection 2022 Nov 3.

Authors

Meng-Yi Bai^{1

2}, Tsai-Hsuan Chen¹, Yu-Chi Wang³, Yu-Ju Lai³

Affiliations

¹ Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology No. 43, Keelung Rd, Sec. 4, Da'an Dist. Taipei City 10607 Taiwan mybai@mail.ntust.edu.tw.
² Adjunct Appointment to the Departmnet of Biomedical Engineering, National Defense Medical Centre Taipei 11490 Taiwan.
³ Department of Obstetric and Gynecology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Centre Taiwan.

Abstract

In this study alginate-based microbubbles with a raspberry-like or core-shell-like morphology and with an average particle size of 553.6 ± 69.6 μm were synthesized; this was done through a novel procedure of transforming the structure with a 40 kHz ultrasonication which also stimulated the release of the components inside. Through the use of the electrospray technique in conjunction with agitation processes, components such as shikonin (SHK) and indocyanine green (ICG) were simultaneously encapsulated in alginate microbubbles to produce SHK-ICG alginate microbubbles; these microbubbles had half-maximal inhibitory concentrations of approximately 2.08 and 4.43 μM toward CP70 and SKOV3 ovarian cancer-cell lines, respectively, in an in vitro cell model. Moreover, these SHK-ICG alginate microbubbles enhanced brightness by 2.5 fold in ultrasound imaging relative to CaCl₂ medium only. In conclusion, SHK-ICG alginate microbubbles have promise for use in theranostics.