Light-Induced Therapies for Prostate Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most widespread tumors affecting the urinary system and the fifth-leading cause from cancer death in men worldwide. Despite PC mortality rates have been decreasing during the last years, most likely due to an intensification of early diagnosis, still more than 300,000 men die each year because of this disease. In this view, researchers in all countries are engaged in finding new ways to tackle PC, including the design and synthesis of novel molecular and macromolecular entities able to challenge different PC biological targets, while limiting the extent of unwanted side effects that significantly limit men's life quality. Among this field of research, photo-induced therapies, such as photodynamic and photothermal therapies (PDT and PTT), might represent an important advancement in PC treatment due to their extremely localized and controlled cytotoxic effect, as well as their low incidence of side effects and tumor resistance occurrence. Based on these considerations, this review aims to gather and discuss the last 5-years literature reports dealing with the synthesis and biological activity of molecular conjugates and nano-platforms for photo-induced therapies as co-adjuvant or combined therapeutic modalities for the treatment of localized PC.

X-ray tomography of cryopreserved human prostate cancer cells: mitochondrial targeting by an organoiridium photosensitiser

“…Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men (with over 1 million reported cases in 2013) [37,38] and a strong candidate for treatment using PDT [32,39]. We probed the effect of the photoactivation of 1 on the mitochondria, and other organelles, of PC3 human prostate cancer cells.…”

“…Here, we have used cryo-SXT at the biological cryo-imaging beamline B24 of the UK synchrotron, Diamond Light Source, to probe the effects of the photoactivation of 1 on the cellular organelles of human PC3 prostate cancer cells. [32] Materials and methods Materials 200 mesh gold TEM F1finder grids with an R2/2 quantifoil carbon substrate were purchased from Quantifoil Micro Tools GmbH (Germany). Gold nanoparticle fiducials (AuNP) of 250 nm diameter were purchased from BBI Solutions (UK).…”

Quo Vadis Advanced Prostate Cancer Therapy? Novel Treatment Perspectives and Possible Future Directions

“…Besides, phototherapy occurs only at the site activated by a light source of a given wavelength (summarized in ref. [36]). At the same time, this fact may also be a drawback of this cancer treatment approach due to the difficult activation of a photoactive molecule in solid tumors localized deeper in the tissue [37].…”

Synthesis of Iridium-Based Nanocomposites With Catalase Activity For Cancer PTT/PDT Therapy

“…In addition, it is di cult to achieve satisfactory therapeutic activity by solely using PTT [29]. Thus, modern studies are focusing on dual-mode therapy combinations of PTT and PDT [30,31]. The main obstacle involves building a reasonable nanoplatform to maximize the synergistic effects of PTT and PDT to kill tumor cells.…”