Facile development of biodegradable polymer-based nanotheranostics: Hydrophobic photosensitizers delivery, fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy

Publication date: Available online 21 February 2019Source: Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: BiologyAuthor(s): Neeraj S. Thakur, Gopal Patel, Varun Kushwah, Sanyog Jain, Uttam C. BanerjeeAbstractPhotodynamic therapy is reported to be a promising technique to eradicate various cancers. As most of the photosensitizers (PSs) are hydrophobic in nature, thus, the effective delivery of PSs at the targeted site is the main hurdle associated with this therapy. Zinc phthalocyanine and Zinc naphthalocyanine are reported as good PSs, however, highly hydrophobic characteristics restrict their use for clinical applications. To circumvent this limitation here we developed the advanced polymer-based nano-delivery system. The developed nanoparticles (NPs) having polymeric core coated with the polyethylene glycol (PEG) and ~90% PS encapsulation. The PEG coating was responsible for the stabilization of probe in the physiological environment and storage conditions. The developed theranostic probes showed efficient in vitro fluorescence and singlet oxygen quantum yields upon irradiation with 620–750 nm (30 mW/cm2) light. The clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) based mechanism of cellular internalization was evaluated. The fluorescence of treated MCF-7 cells showed the ability of the probes as imaging agents. Moreover, up to 65% cell inhibition showed their cytotoxic efficiency. Further, comparatively higher tumor-accumulation of PSs without significant hepato/nephro-toxicity sh...
Source: Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research