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Porphyrin aggregates have attractive photophysical properties for phototherapy and optical imaging, including quenched photosensitization, efficient photothermal conversion, and unique absorption spectra. Although hydrophobic porphyrin photosensitizers have long been encapsulated into liposomes for drug delivery, little is known about the membrane properties of liposomes with large amphiphilic porphyrin compositions. In this paper, a porphyrin-lipid conjugate was incorporated into liposomes formed of saturated or unsaturated lipids to study the membrane composition-dependent formation of highly ordered porphyrin J-aggregates and disordered aggregates. Porphyrin-lipid readily phase-separates in saturated membranes, forming J-aggregates that are destabilized during the ripple phase below the main thermal transition. Porphyrin-lipid J-aggregates are photostable with a photothermal efficiency of 54 ± 6%, comparable to gold. Even at high porphyrin-lipid compositions, porphyrin J-aggregates coexist with a minority population of disordered aggregates, which are photodynamically active despite being fluorescently quenched. For photothermal applications, liposome formulations that encourage porphyrin-lipid phase separation should be explored for maximum J-aggregation.

Within phototherapy, a grand challenge in clinical cancer treatments is to develop a simple, cost-effective, and biocompatible approach to treat this disease using ultra-low doses of light. Carbon-based materials (CBM), such as graphene oxide (GO), reduced GO (r-GO), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), and carbon dots (C-DOTs), are rapidly emerging as a new class of therapeutic materials against cancer. This review summarizes the progress made in recent years regarding the applications of CBM in photodynamic (PDT) and photothermal (PTT) therapies for tumor destruction. The current understanding of the performance of modified CBM, hybrids and composites, is also addressed. This approach seeks to achieve an enhanced antitumor action by improving and modulating the properties of CBM to treat various types of cancer. Metal oxides, organic molecules, biopolymers, therapeutic drugs, among others, have been combined with CBM to treat cancer by PDT, PTT, or synergistic therapies.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment modality that can be indicated for several cancer types and precancer lesions. One of the main applications of PDT is the treatment of superficial skin lesions such as basal cell carcinoma, Bowen's disease and actinic keratosis. Three elements are necessary in PDT, a photosensitizer (PS); light at specific wavelength to be absorbed by the PS, and molecular oxygen. A typical PS used for skin lesion is protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), which is an intrinsic PS; its production is stimulated by a pro-drug, such as 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA). Before starting a treatment, it is very important to follow up the PpIX production (to ensure that enough PS was produced prior to a PDT application) and, during a PDT session, to monitor its photodegradation (as it is evidence of the photodynamic effect taking place). The aim of this paper is to present a unique device, LINCE (MMOptics -São Carlos, Brazil), that brings together two probes that can, respectively, allow for fluorescence imaging and work as a light source for PDT treatment. The fluorescence probe of the system is optically based on 400 nm LED (light emitting diodes) arrays that allow observing the fluorescence emission over 450 nm. The PDT illumination probe options are constituted of 630 nm LED arrays for small areas and, for large areas, of both 630 nm and 450 nm LED arrays. Joining both functions at the same device makes PDT treatment simpler, properly monitorable and, hence, more clinically feasible. LINCE has been used in almost 1000 PDT treatments of superficial skin lesions in Brazil, with 88.4% of clearance of superficial BCC.

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Cancer is considered one of the major public health problems worldwide. Among the therapeutic approaches investigated and used so far, the combined use of photothermal (PTT) and photodynamic (PDT) therapies have shown promising results for in vivo studies. The mechanisms of actions of both therapies are based on use of a chemical entity and a source light with an appropriate wavelength, and, in PDTs case, also molecular oxygen (O2). Moreover, the combined use of PTT and PDT may present a synergic effect on the elimination of solid tumor and metastasis. Herein, we review the past 5 years (2016–2020) regarding the combined use of PTT and PDT and carbon nanomaterial platforms as photosensitizers and photothermal agents against cancer (in vivo evaluation). We intend to highlight the most important and illustrative examples for this period. Additionally, we report the mechanisms of action of PTT and PTT and the general physical/chemical properties of carbon nanomaterial platforms used for this therapeutic approach.

Graphical AbstractBrief description of the procedures carried out in this study. In vivo and in vitro antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) studies, where aPDT mediated by C-DOTS and blue LED light against S. aureus was evaluated.