Shriya Phadnis: Designing and optimising oxygen-loaded microbubbles for anticancer applications

Objectives: To optimise surfactant-based oxygen microbubbles for enhanced oxygen loading and retention, while developing a platform suitable for future chemotherapeutic conjugation.

Methods

Niosomes comprising surfactants Span 60, Tween 80, and cholesterol were synthesised using thin-film hydration, followed by probe sonication. These were then loaded with oxygen in a high-pressure environment to form microbubbles. The formulations were characterised for size distribution, microbubble count, oxygen loading, and release behaviour.

PEGylation, turbidity assessment and concentrated oxygen foam preparation are being investigated to improve oxygen retention. Results: Cholesterol-containing formulations demonstrated reduced oxygen-loading capacity. Span 60 and Tween 80 produced microbubbles with favourable size, stability, and oxygen retention, while also offering surface functionality for conjugation of molecules with similar functional groups to doxorubicin.

Discussion: These findings demonstrate that shell composition strongly influences oxygen loading and release behaviour. Current work focuses on PEGylation to enhance oxygen retention while preserving conjugation capability. The optimised platform will subsequently be evaluated in an in vitro tumour hypoxia model to assess its potential as an oxygen-enhanced anticancer delivery system.</p>