title: Can nanotechnology potentiate photodynamic therapy?
abstract: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) uses the combination of non-toxic dyes and harmless visible light to produce reactive oxygen species that can kill cancer cells and infectious microorganisms. Due to the tendency of most photosensitizers (PS) to be poorly soluble and to form nonphotoactive aggregates, drug-delivery vehicles have become of high importance. The nanotechnology revolution has provided many examples of nanoscale drug-delivery platforms that have been applied to PDT. These include liposomes, lipoplexes, nanoemulsions, micelles, polymer nanoparticles (degradable and nondegradable), and silica nanoparticles. In some cases (fullerenes and quantum dots), the actual nanoparticle itself is the PS. Targeting ligands such as antibodies and peptides can be used to increase specificity. Gold and silver nanoparticles can provide plasmonic enhancement of PDT. Two-photon excitation or optical upconversion can be used instead of one-photon excitation to increase tissue penetration at longer wavelengths. Finally, after sections onin vivostudies and nanotoxicology, we attempt to answer the title question, "can nano-technology potentiate PDT?"
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA ; Aesthetic and Plastic Center, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Sulbha K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Tianhong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Hoon
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA ; College of Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yaroslavsky
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Institut Químic de Sarrià, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona 08017, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garcia-Diaz
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Long Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 40 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, USA ; Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hamblin
keywords: ORMOSIL; dendrimer; fullerene; graphene; lipoplex; lipoprotein; liposome; magnetic nanoparticle; micelle; nanocell; nanoparticle; polymeric nanoparticle; porphysome; quantum dot; single-walled carbon nanotube; two-photon excitation; upconversion