Porous silicon (porSi), which contains luminescent Si nanocrystal assemblies, is a promising semiconductor material for the photosensitized formation of singlet oxygen, 1 O 2 , for biological applications. However, because as-prepared luminescent Si nanocrystals are H-terminated and therefore hydrophobic, the first step to create a prototype of Si nanocrystalbased photosensitizer should be a modification of the Si nanocrystal surface with the aim to make it hydrophilic and able to work in a biological ambient. Such surface modification by surfactants should not, however, result in a decrease of the nanocrystals' durability that may, in principle, take place because of surfactant-induced weakening of surface tension and the consequent increase of interaction with H 2 O molecules. Surfactants should not also decrease the ability of the nanocrystals to transfer the excitation energy to acceptors (first of all molecular oxygen) on their surface. These rather contradictory tasks have been largely solved in the present work by use of nonionic surfactants physically adsorbed on the porSi surface.One of the strategic objectives of nanotechnology is the development of new materials of nanometer size that have entirely new physical properties, and, therefore, new functionality. Over the last decade, tailoring of material characteristics by size control has been demonstrated for many types of semiconductors. Optical and electronic properties of semiconductor nanocrystals can be simply engineered by changing their size and composition. When electrons and holes are squeezed into a dimension that approaches a critical size, quantum-confinement effects become apparent. This effect can be seen experimentally as a widening of the semiconductor nanocrystal bandgap.[1]

Loss of E-cadherin expression correlates with loss of intercellular adhesion, tight junction formation and enhanced paracellular transport. The data show that E-cadherin hampers the permeation of hypericin in spheroids and the loss of intercellular adhesion, present in superficial bladder cancer lesions, can be associated with enhanced hypericin permeation. Therefore, E-cadherin expression seems to have a pivotal role in the selective uptake of hypericin after intravesical instillation in human bladders.

Recently, various bio‐medical applications of nanoporous silicon (np‐Si) have been suggested. This work investigates the biocompatibility of np‐Si particles taking into account hazardous residua confined in the pores after preparation. The emphasis is on the potential application of such particles as oxygen photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy of cancer, which requires both negligible toxicity of np‐Si particles in darkness and a high photo‐cyto‐toxic effect due to generation of singlet oxygen under illumination. Considerable amounts of water soluble toxic impurities are found to be present in the nanoporous shell of micrometer‐sized np‐Si particles immediately after their preparation by chemical etching of bulk silicon powder. The effects of several ordinary cleaning treatments are investigated by using thermal effusion mass‐spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. A particular purification procedure is developed, capable to reduce the concentration of residual impurities to levels acceptable for bio‐medical applications while preserving the required photo‐activity of the np‐Si particles.

Abstract. In the present study, we evaluated the possibility of enhancing the photodynamic effect of hypericin in transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) spheroids by the use of the oxygen carrier, perfluorodecalin. Following incubation with hypericin, RT-112 TCC spheroids were irradiated in the presence or absence of perfluorodecalin, at light doses of 7 J/cm 2 or 28 J/ cm 2 , delivered at a fluence rate of 15 mW/cm 2 . The photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficacy was evaluated and apoptotic cells were visualized. The results show that, in the absence of perfluorodecalin, spheroidal TCC cells are inadequately sensitive to hypericin PDT. As was shown by fluorescence microscopy, this lack of activity was not due to insufficient photoactive concentrations of hypericin reaching the inner parts of the spheroids. Conversely, enhanced oxygenation of spheroids by perfluorodecalin led to a dramatic enhancement of hypericin PDT efficacy. The detection of nuclear shrinkage or fragmentation with DAPI staining and the assessment of cell morphology by light microscopy indicated that apoptosis was the most prominent response of spheroids to hypericin PDT in the presence of perfluorodecalin. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that perfluorocarbons, such as perfluorodecalin, are useful in enhancing the oxygenation of tumor tissue, resulting in highly efficient hypericin PDT. Since hypericin becomes concentrated specifically in human bladder urothelial carcinoma lesions and the bladder is very well suited to instillation with a perfluorocarbon, combining the techniques looks very promising for an efficient and selective whole bladder wall photodynamic antitumoral treatment in a urological clinical setting.

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Spheroids composed of cancer cell lines expressing variable levels of E-cadherin represent an excellent model in which to study the role of intercellular adhesion in bladder cancer. The outcome of this study strongly suggests that E-cadherin is the key mediator in the selective accumulation of hypericin in superficial bladder cancer after intravesical instillation in humans.