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The sonodynamic activities of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with different morphologies, gold nanospheres (GNSs), gold nanoflowers (GNFs) and gold nanorods (GNRs), were explored by multi‐spectroscopic methods, in which the lesion degree of human serum albumin (HSA) was used as assessment index. The results revealed that three GNPs all had certain sonosensitivity but varying from different morphologies. It was also found that GNPs concentration and ultrasonic parameters were all critical influencing factors of sonodynamic injury HSA. Investigating the physical damage mechanism, the results indicated that the secondary and tertiary structure of HSA were compromised by ultrasound (US) combined with GNPs, so that the conformation of HSA was altered and the function was variously disturbed due to GNPs different morphologies. Studying the chemical damage mechanism, the results discovered that the yield of singlet oxygen (1O2) produced by GNPs with various morphologies combined with US was significant difference. Therefore, comprehensively analyzing the research results under different factors, the order of sonodynamic activities of GNPs was GNSs≈GNFs>GNRs. These findings may provide reference for the application of GNPs as sonosensitizers in sonodynamic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the mortality of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) is still high, COX‐2 is highly expressed in the head and neck cancers, and targeting COX‐2 is a potential treatment for TSCC. Herein, a series of novel carborane compounds based on COX‐2 inhibitors have been developed for the effective treatment of TSCC by boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Notably, the compound 1 had high COX‐2 selectivity and low cytotoxicity against CAL27 cells. Meanwhile, the compound 1 had higher selectivity and uptake of CAL27 cells compared to the positive control group sodium borocaptate (BSH). The apoptosis of CAL27 cells treated with the compound 1 during BNCT was significantly induced by breaking DNA double strands and generating excess reactive oxygen species, and the proliferation of cancer cells was inhibited by down‐regulating the expression of cytokines associated with phosphatidylinositide 3‐kinases/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) and mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPKs) signaling pathways in BNCT. Thus, the carborane compounds based on COX‐2 inhibitors have the potential to effectively treat tongue squamous cell carcinoma through BNCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]