Induction of Apoptosis by Functionalized Fullerene-based Sonodynamic Therapy in HL-60 cells

Ultrasound has been widely utilized for medical diagnosis and therapy due to its ability to penetrate deep-seated tissue with less attenuation of energy and minimal undesirable side-effects. Functionalized fullerenes, such as polyhydroxy fullerene (PHF), have attracted particular attention due to their water solubility and potential application in tumor imaging and therapy as carbon nanomaterials. The present study investigated sonodynamically-induced apoptosis using PHF. Cell suspensions were treated with 2-MHz continuous ultrasound in the presence of PHF for 3 min and apoptosis was assessed by cell morphology using confocal microscopy, fragmentation of DNA (ladder pattern after agarose-gel electrophoresis) and caspase-3 activation. Cells were ultrasound-irradiated from the bottom of the culture dishes under the following condition: frequency, 2 MHz; output power, 3 W/cm(2) Electron spin resonance was used to measure reactive oxygen species. The number of apoptotic cells after sonodynamic exposure (ultrasound and PHF) was significantly higher than produced from other treatments, such as ultrasound alone and PHF alone. Furthermore, DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 activation and enhanced 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidinyloxy (4oxoTEMPO) formation were observed in the sonodynamically-treated cells. Histidine, a well-known reactive oxygen scavenger, significantly inhibited sonodynamically-induced apoptosis, caspase-3 activation and 4oxoTEMPO formation. Sonodynamic therapy with PHF induced apoptosis that was characterized by a series of typical morphological features, such as shrinkage of the cell and fragmentation into membrane-bound apoptotic bodies, in HL-60 cells. The significant inhibition of sonodynamically-induced apoptosis, caspase-3 activation, and 4oxoTEMPO formation due to histidine and tryptophan suggests that reactive oxygen species, such as singlet oxygen, are involved in the sonodynamic induction of apoptosis. These findings indicate that PHF-mediated sonodynamic therapy can trigger caspase-dependent apoptosis and oxidative injury, thus possibly playing a vital role in apoptotic signaling cascades.