abstract
In this study, we encapsulated S-galactosylated and S-glucosylated porphyrins (Pors) into amorphous silica nanoparticles (SNPs) to enhance the photodynamic therapy (PDT) activity. The resulting galacto- and gluco-nanoformulations were demonstrated to be spherical in shape with diameters of 197.3 +/- 29.0 nm and 128.3 +/- 22.2 nm. The galacto- and gluco-nanoparticles (NPs) were able to produce a high amount of singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) and were stable under the conditions of the experiments. In vitro studies show that the nanoformulations were effectively taken up by the human bladder cancer cell lines HT-1376 and UM-UC-3. The PDT results show that these photoactive nanoformulations are 3 to 5 times more efficient than the non-encapsulated/free Pors. These Por-silica nanoformulations could be successfully used as novel nanocarriers for the delivery of photosensitizer materials for cancer PDT.
keywords
DRUG-DELIVERY; PHOTOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES; SINGLET OXYGEN; PHOTOSENSITIZERS; PHOTOCYTOTOXICITY; NANOCARRIERS; PLATFORMS
subject category
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
authors
Borzecka, W; Pereira, PMR; Fernandes, R; Trindade, T; Torres, T; Tome, JPC
our authors
Tito Trindade
Full professor
Wioleta Anna Borzecka
PhD Studentacknowledgements
Thanks are due to FCT/MEC for the financial support to QOPNA (FCT UID/QUI/00062/2019), CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020), CIBB (UIDB/04539/2020) and CQE (UIDB/00100/2020) research units, through national funds and where applicable cofinanced by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. The authors also acknowledge FCT for the doctoral research fellowship SFRH/BD/85941/2012 (to PMRP). The work was also supported by the Spanish MINECO (CTQ2017-85393-P) and ERA-NET/MINECO (EuroNanoMed2017-191/PCIN-2017-042) and Portuguese COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007440). We further wish to thank the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-People-2012-ITN) for funding the SO2S project (grant agreement number: 316975).