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Nanotechnologies in Oncology

Photodynamic Therapy Approaches

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Handbook of Oxidative Stress in Cancer: Therapeutic Aspects

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Abstract

Nano-oncology, the application of nanomedicine to cancer treatments, has the potential to transform clinical oncology by enhancing the efficacy of various cancer therapies. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) cancer treatment involves the administration of a photosensitizer (PS) to a patient’s localized tumor. Once the PS is accumulated within a target tumor site, it can be activated with laser irradiation at a particular wavelength and so produce reactive oxygen and cytotoxic species, which in turn destroy cancer cells. However, the administration of PSs alone within PDT cancer treatments has noted many pitfalls, such as limited uptake in tumor cells, phototoxicity, poor tissue distribution, and rapid clearance from the body, hindering the effectiveness of such treatments. Nevertheless, the combination of PSs with nanoparticles enables novel drug delivery systems to be developed, which can effectively target tumor sites with several functional molecules, including tumor-specific ligands, antibodies, and cytotoxic agents. These PS nanoparticle targeting conjugates can improve PS uptake and retention in tumor cells, allowing for significantly improved localized PDT cancer treatment outcomes, with reduced systemic and phototoxicity results. For this reason, nano-oncology is attracting considerable scientific interest, and its combinative application within PDT cancer treatments is rapidly being researched. This review highlights the progress, challenges, and opportunities in PDT cancer nanomedicine, as well as discusses the novel PS nanoengineering approaches that have been investigated in order to develop far more effective PDT nanotherapeutic treatment approaches for cancer patients.

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Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank the University of Johannesburg, the National Laser Centre, the National Research Foundation-South African Research Chairs Initiative (NRF-SARChI) and the University of Johannesburg GES 4.0 PDF Fellowship for their financial grant support.

Author Contributions

Hanieh Montaseri: conceptualization, investigation, and writing – original draft. Heidi Abrahamse: supervision, review, editing, and funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest. This manuscript is based on our original research and has neither been published nor is being considered elsewhere for publication. Additionally, all the authors note that they do not have any relationships that they believe could be construed as a conflict of interest with regard to manuscript review process.

Funding

This research was funded by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa, grant number 98337.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laser Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Hanieh Montaseri & Heidi Abrahamse

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  1. Hanieh Montaseri
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  2. Heidi Abrahamse
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hanieh Montaseri .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal, India

    Sajal Chakraborti

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas, El Paso, Texas, USA

    Mahesh Narayan

  2. School of Biotechnology, KIIT Deemed to be University, Institute of Eminence, Bhubaneswar, India

    Gopal C. Kundu

  3. Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela-, Odisha, India

    Subhankar Paul

  4. Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, SavitribaiPhule Pune University, Pune, Maharastra, India

    Tuli Dey

  5. Department of Animal Biotechnology, Lala lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana, India

    Minakshi Prasad Ph.D

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Montaseri, H., Abrahamse, H. (2022). Nanotechnologies in Oncology. In: Chakraborti, S. (eds) Handbook of Oxidative Stress in Cancer: Therapeutic Aspects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5422-0_203

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