Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology

Liquid phase preparation and characterization of MgO nanoparticles and their butchery activities against dental bacterial pathogens and human cervical cancer cell line

A novel method for synthesizing nanomaterials involves microbial or phytochemical nano-factories, which offer an eco-friendly, cost-effective, and reliable approach to producing clean and reproducible products. In this study, magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO NPs) were synthesized using Avicennia marina, a marine plant, as both a nucleation and stabilizing agent. The MgO NPs were characterized for crystallinity, cut-off wavelength, morphology, thermal stability, and surface properties using XRD, EDX, BET, UV-Visible spectroscopy, DLS, zeta potential analysis, SEM, TEM, TGA/DTA, and PL spectroscopy. Using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, the specific surface area of the MgO nanoparticles was determined to be 97.248 m

Betulinic acid and its spray dried microparticle formulation: In vitro PDT effect against ovarian carcinoma cell line and in vivo plasma and tumor disposition

The race against ovarian cancer continue to motivate the research worldwide. It is known that many antitumor drugs have limited penetration into solid tumor tissues due to its microenvironment, thus contributing to their low efficacy. Therapeutic modalities have been exploited to elicit antitumor effects based on microenvironment of tumor, including Photodynamic therapy (PDT). Prospection of natural small molecules and nanotechnology are important tools in the development of new ways of obtaining photoactive compounds that are biocompatible. The Betulinic acid (BA) has shown potential biological effect as bioactive drug, but it has low water solubility. Thus, in the present study, owing to the poor solubility of the BA, its free form (BAF) was compared to a spray dried microparticle betulinic acid/HP-β-CD formulation (BAC) aiming to assess the BAF and BAC efficacy as a photosensitizer in PDT for application in ovarian cancer. BAF and BAC were submitted to assays in the presence of LED (λ = 420 nm) under different conditions (2.75 J/cm

Photo-sonodynamic therapy mediated with OLI_NPs to induce HPV16E7-specific immune response and inhibit cervical cancer in a Tc-1-grafted murine model

Cervical carcinoma is the fourth most common gynecological cancer. Here we reported the synthesis of oxygen-carried and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/ indocyanine green (ICG)-loaded nanoparticles (OLI_NPs) for photo-sonodynamic therapy (PSDT) mediated combination therapy to induce systemic antitumor immune responses. We effectively built a new nanoparticle system, a multifunctional nanoagent that integrated the ability of dual-model imaging and therapy for tumors. In this study, we confirmed that OLI_NPs can act as a multifunctional platform that enables not only to diagnose tumors conveniently but also to efficiently provide treatment of in situ tumors, permitting simultaneous dual-mode imaging and localization of the therapy in combination with PSDT-mediated drug release. Furthermore, our combined strategy could effectively depress the tumor development and extend mouse life by the combination of inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD) with encapsulated LPS. In conclusion, combining therapy of OLI_NPs plus PSDT can induce anti-tumor immune responses and tumor antigen-specific immunity in a common TC-1 graft tumor model. Therefore, this combination therapy is a viable technique for cervical cancer treatment.