Photodynamic Therapy Using a Rose-Bengal Photosensitizer for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment: Proposition for a Novel Green LED-Based Device for In Vitro Investigation

• Published in: Biomedicines Vol. 12; no. 9; p. 2120
• Main Authors: Lefebvre, Anthony, Marhfor, Smail, Baert, Gregory, Deleporte, Pascal, Grolez, Guillaume Paul, Boileau, Marie, Morales, Olivier, Vignoud, Séverine, Delhem, Nadira, Mortier, Laurent, Dewalle, Anne-Sophie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 18.09.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Breast cancer; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Cell death; Cell viability; Cytotoxicity; Health aspects; Hepatitis; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Hepatoma; Illumination; in vitro device; Lasers; LED; Light emitting diodes; Liver cancer; Liver diseases; Lung cancer; Melanoma; Metastasis; optical fibers; Photochemotherapy; Photodynamic therapy; Rose Bengal; Tumors; Israel; France; Germany; India; in vitro device; LED; photodynamic therapy; hepatocellular carcinoma; optical fibers; Rose Bengal
• ISSN: 2227-9059; 2227-9059
• DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines12092120

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Despite new treatments, the HCC rate remains important, making it necessary to develop novel therapeutic strategies. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using a Rose-Bengal (RB) photosensitizer (RB-PDT) could be a promising approach for liver tumor treatment. However, the lack of standardization in preclinical research and the diversity of illumination parameters used make comparison difficult across studies. This work presents and characterizes a novel illumination device based on one green light-emitting diode (CELL-LED-550/3) dedicated to an in vitro RB-PDT. The device was demonstrated to deliver a low average irradiance of 0.62 mW/cm over the 96 wells of a multi-well plate. Thermal characterization showed that illumination does not cause cell heating and can be performed inside an incubator, allowing a more rigorous assessment of cell viability after PDT. An in vitro cytotoxic study of the RB-PDT on an HCC cell line (HepG2) demonstrated that RB-PDT induces a significant decrease in cell viability: almost all the cells died after a light dose irradiation of 0.3 J/cm using 75 µM of RB (<10% of viability). In conclusion, the RB-PDT could be a therapeutic option to treat unresectable liver lesions and subclinical disease remaining in the post-resection tumor surgical margin.