Nanoparticles for Photodynamic Therapy Applications

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy has emerged as an alternative to chemo-and radiotherapy for the treatment of certain types of cancer. Nanoparticles have been used to improve the delivery and the efficiency of the photosensitizer as they allow its encapsulation without loss of activity. Using targeting strategies, they can also allow the selective accumulation of the photosensitizer in the cancer tissues. In this review, based on the chemical nature of the nanoparticles, the different methods for their syntheses are described from the pioneering works to the latest achievements. Indeed the nanosystems can be conjugated to a biomolecule or an antibody to target receptors over-expressed in cancer cells and/or angiogenic vascular endothelial cells. Numerous in vivo and in vitro applications have been described. Multifunctional nanoplatforms combining several applications within the same nano-object emerge as potential important theranostic tools.

Decreasing the gap between emerging nanotechnologies and citizen through ethical considerations and socially responsible research: the example of nano-drugs

“…It corresponds to results issued from emailed questionnaires, summed up below (3). The decision to conduct a qualitative survey rose from the need to dispose of first hand and shared information regarding the level of knowledge of our specific study object, nano-medicine and more precisely PDT using nano-particles, in the educated public [Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an important emerging research field for the development of nano-scale therapeutics (42)(43)(44). Photodynamic therapy involves the use of light, photo-sensitizers (PS) and oxygen.…”

Preventing Societal Health Risks Emerging in the Development Of Nanomedicine - What Should Prevail?

“…Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is another important emerging research field for the development of nanoscale therapeutics (Bechet et al, 2008;Couleaud et al, 2010b;Vanderesse et al, 2011) that can optimize drug delivery of materials or systems. Photodynamic therapy involves the use of light, photosensitizers and oxygen.…”

New Targeted Gold Nanorods for the Treatment of Glioblastoma by Photodynamic Therapy

“…PDT is a well-established minimally invasive technique for the treatment of various maladies including cancer. The three main building blocks of PDT are the photoactivatable photosensitizer (PS), light and molecular oxygen [4][5][6][7]. In the presence of an illumination source at a suitable wavelength, the PS gets excited and transfers its energy to the neighboring oxygen, that in its turn gets excited from the inactive triplet state to create singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) or others types of reactive oxygen species (ROS).…”

“…In the presence of an illumination source at a suitable wavelength, the PS gets excited and transfers its energy to the neighboring oxygen, that in its turn gets excited from the inactive triplet state to create singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) or others types of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The generated ROS lie behind the cancer cell killing which is achieved by necrosis or apoptosis [5,[8][9][10][11]. The key to an efficient PDT is the prolonged circulation of the drug in the blood and their specific accumulation inside the tumor [12,13].…”

“…However, these lack selectivity and present high hydrophobicity that limits their solubility in biological media. This issue leads to the aggregation of the PSs that, consequently, suppresses their photophysical properties especially the production of 1 O 2 [4,5,14,15]. To overcome this burden, and taking into account that it is hard to create a free PS with high selectivity, various nanoparticle (NP)-based carrier systems were developed [16][17][18][19][20].…”