Bioactive Nanoliposomes for Enhanced Sonodynamic-Triggered Disulfidptosis-Like Cancer Cell Death via Lipid Peroxidation

Introduction: Cell death regulation holds a unique value in the field of cancer therapy. Recently, disulfidptosis has garnered substantial scientific attention. Previous studies have reported that sonodynamic therapy (SDT) based on reactive oxygen species (ROS) can regulate cancer cell death, achieving an limited anti-cancer effect. However, the integration of SDT with disulfidptosis as an anti-cancer strategy has not been extensively developed. In this study, we constructed an artificial membrane disulfidptosis sonosensitizer, specifically, a nanoliposome (SC@lip) coated with a combination of the chemotherapy medicine Sorafenib (Sora) and sonosensitizer Chlorin e6 (Ce6), to realize a one-stop enhanced SDT effect that induces disulfidptosis-like cancer cell death.

Methods: Sorafenib and Ce6 were co-encapsulated into PEG-modified liposomes, and SC@Lip was constructed using a simple rotary evaporation phacoemulsification method. The cell phagocytosis, ROS generation ability, glutathione (GSH) depletion ability, lipid peroxidation (LPO), and disulfidptosis-like death mediated by SC@Lip under ultrasound (US) irradiation were evaluated. Based on a 4T1 subcutaneous tumor model, both the in vivo biological safety assessment and the efficacy of SDT were assessed.

Results: SC@Lip exhibits high efficiency in cellular phagocytosis. After being endocytosed by 4T1 cells, abundant ROS were produced under SDT activation, and the cell survival rates were below 5%. When applied to a 4T1 subcutaneous tumor model, the enhanced SDT mediated by SC@Lip inhibited tumor growth and prolonged the survival time of mice. In vitro and in vivo experiments show that SC@Lip can enhance the SDT effect and trigger disulfidptosis-like cancer cell death, thus achieving anti-tumor efficacy both in vitro and in vivo.

Conclusion: SC@Lip is a multifunctional nanoplatform with an artificial membrane, which can integrate the functions of sonosensitization and GSH depletion into a biocompatible nanoplatform, and can be used to enhance the SDT effect and promote disulfidptosis-like cancer cell death.