Photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer is based on the use of a light sensitive molecule to produce, under specific irradiation, toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS). A way to improve the therapy efficiency is to increase the amount of produced ROS near cancer cells. This aim can be achieved by using a metal enhanced process arising when an optically active molecule is located near a metallic nanoparticle (NP). Here, the coupling effect between silver (Ag) NPs and protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) molecules, a clinically approved photosensitizer, is studied compared first, to PpIX fluorescence yield and second, to ROS production efficiency. By applying a modified Stöber process, PpIX was encapsulated into a silica (SiO₂) shell, surrounding a 60 nm sized Ag core. We showed that, compared to SiO₂-PpIX NPs, Ag coated SiO₂-PpIX NPs dramatically decreased PpIX fluorescence together with singlet oxygen production efficiency. However, after incubation time in the dark, the amount of superoxide anions generated by the Ag doped sample was higher than the control sample one.

Date Published: 12 March 2015
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9338, Colloidal Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications X, 93380E (12 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2078980

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9338:
Colloidal Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications X
Wolfgang J. Parak; Marek Osinski; Xing-Jie Liang, Editor(s)