Photodynamic therapy review: principles, photosensitizers, applications, and future directions

• Published in: Pharmaceutics Vol. 13; no. 9; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Authors: Correia, J. H., Rodrigues, José Artur Oliveira, Pimenta, Sara Filomena Ribeiro, Dong, Tao, Yang, Zhaochu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) 25.08.2021; MDPI AG; MDPI
• Subjects: Antimicrobial PDT; Apoptosis; Cancer; Cytotoxicity; Drug dosages; Energy; Light therapy; New photosensitizers; non-oncologic applications of PDT; PDT in medical devices; PDT mechanisms; PDT tumor treatment; Photodynamic therapy; Review; Science & Technology; Skin; Tumors
• ISSN: 1999-4923; 1999-4923
• DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13091332

"This article belongs to the Special Issue: Special Issue in Honor of Dr. Michael Weber’s 70th Birthday: Photodynamic Therapy: Rising Star in Pharmaceutical Applications" Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a minimally invasive therapeutic modality that has gained great attention in the past years as a new therapy for cancer treatment. PDT uses photosensitizers that, after being excited by light at a specific wavelength, react with the molecular oxygen to create reactive oxygen species in the target tissue, resulting in cell death. Compared to conventional therapeutic modalities, PDT presents greater selectivity against tumor cells, due to the use of photosensitizers that are preferably localized in tumor lesions, and the precise light irradiation of these lesions. This paper presents a review of the principles, mechanisms, photosensitizers, and current applications of PDT. Moreover, the future path on the research of new photosensitizers with enhanced tumor selectivity, featuring the improvement of PDT effectiveness, has also been addressed. Finally, new applications of PDT have been covered. This work was supported by FCT with project OpticalBrain reference PTDC/CTMREF/28406/2017, operation code POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028406, through the COMPETE 2020; CMEMSUMinho Strategic Project UIDB/04436/2020; Infrastructures Micro&NanoFabs@PT, operation code NORTE 01-0145-FEDER-022090, POR Norte, Portugal 2020; and MPhotonBiopsy, PTDC/FIS-OTI/1259/2020. The authors thank Biolitec research GmbH (Jena, Germany) for providing the photosensitizer Foscan®. The APC was funded by Chongqing Technology and Business University (CTBU).