scholarly journals Liposome Photosensitizer Formulations for Effective Cancer Photodynamic Therapy

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1345
Author(s):  
Sherif Ashraf Fahmy ◽  
Hassan Mohamed El-Said Azzazy ◽  
Jens Schaefer

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising non-invasive strategy in the fight against that which circumvents the systemic toxic effects of chemotherapeutics. It relies on photosensitizers (PSs), which are photoactivated by light irradiation and interaction with molecular oxygen. This generates highly reactive oxygen species (such as 1O2, H2O2, O2, ·OH), which kill cancer cells by necrosis or apoptosis. Despite the promising effects of PDT in cancer treatment, it still suffers from several shortcomings, such as poor biodistribution of hydrophobic PSs, low cellular uptake, and low efficacy in treating bulky or deep tumors. Hence, various nanoplatforms have been developed to increase PDT treatment effectiveness and minimize off-target adverse effects. Liposomes showed great potential in accommodating different PSs, chemotherapeutic drugs, and other therapeutically active molecules. Here, we review the state-of-the-art in encapsulating PSs alone or combined with other chemotherapeutic drugs into liposomes for effective tumor PDT.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bashir Ahmad Dar

The search for non-invasive or minimally invasive approaches for the treatment of cancer has led to the development of different therapeutic regimes and one such regime is photodynamic therapy (PDT). PDT is a non-thermal treatment based on the synergy of three elements: the administration of a photosensitizer drug; light at a precise wavelength; and the presence of oxygen. When these three components are combined, they lead to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in a complex cascade of events and subsequent cell death Studies revealed that PDT can prolong survival in patients with inoperable cancers and significantly improve the quality of life. With a number of recent technological improvements, PDT has the potential to become integrated into the mainstream strategy for cancer treatment. In this review, we have addressed the most important biological and physicochemical aspects of PDT, summarized its clinical status and provided an outlook for its potential future development. We also discussed the factors that hamper the exploration of this effective therapy and what should be changed to render it a more effective and more widely available option for patients.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3132
Author(s):  
Thais P. Pivetta ◽  
Caroline E. A. Botteon ◽  
Paulo A. Ribeiro ◽  
Priscyla D. Marcato ◽  
Maria Raposo

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) are photo-mediated treatments with different mechanisms of action that can be addressed for cancer treatment. Both phototherapies are highly successful and barely or non-invasive types of treatment that have gained attention in the past few years. The death of cancer cells because of the application of these therapies is caused by the formation of reactive oxygen species, that leads to oxidative stress for the case of photodynamic therapy and the generation of heat for the case of photothermal therapies. The advancement of nanotechnology allowed significant benefit to these therapies using nanoparticles, allowing both tuning of the process and an increase of effectiveness. The encapsulation of drugs, development of the most different organic and inorganic nanoparticles as well as the possibility of surfaces’ functionalization are some strategies used to combine phototherapy and nanotechnology, with the aim of an effective treatment with minimal side effects. This article presents an overview on the use of nanostructures in association with phototherapy, in the view of cancer treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Vahalová ◽  
Kateřina Červinková ◽  
Michal Cifra

AbstractNowadays, modern medicine is looking for new, more gentle, and more efficient diagnostic methods. A pathological state of an organism is often closely connected with increased amount of reactive oxygen species. They can react with biomolecules and subsequent reactions can lead to very low endogenous light emission (biological autoluminescence—BAL). This phenomenon can be potentially used as a non-invasive and low-operational-cost tool for monitoring oxidative stress during diseases. To contribute to the understanding of the parameters affecting BAL, we analyzed the BAL from yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a representative eukaryotic organism. The relationship between the BAL intensity and the amount of reactive oxygen species that originates as a result of the Fenton reaction as well as correlation between spontaneous BAL and selected physical and chemical parameters (pH, oxygen partial pressure, and cell concentration) during cell growth were established. Our results contribute to real-time non-invasive methodologies for monitoring oxidative processes in biomedicine and biotechnology.


Author(s):  
Zi-Yu Chen ◽  
Yu-Chen Su ◽  
Fong-Yu Cheng ◽  
Shian-Jang Yan ◽  
Ying-Jan Wang

Engineered nanoparticles raise safety concerns. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) exert acute and chronic adverse effects by inducing reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated stress signaling pathways. We investigated the mechanisms by which AgNPs...


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