Terapia Fotodinâmica: uma revisão dos conceitos gerais e dos avanços de novos sistemas carreadores desenvolvidos com base na nanotecnologia

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a less invasive alternative for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer. Light, oxygen and photosensitizers (PSs) are the basic elements for PDT. With the irradiation of light at the appropriate wavelength to excite the PSs, they can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) inducing cell death by apoptosis, necrosis or autophagy. One of the challenges is that traditional PSs in most of them have low stability under physiological conditions, low specificity for tumor cells and hydrophobic nature, which causes self-aggregation, decreasing the efficiency of the treatment of PDT. Nanocarriers with suitable properties have emerged as an attractive alternative to overcome the limitations of PSs and light irradiation systems. This review presented the current challenges of using PDT, and briefly addressed some of the many advances in various nanomaterials, including several nanoparticles, biodegradable and non-biodegradable that provide an increase in the efficiency of PDT.