Stem Cells Loaded with Nanoparticles as a Drug Carrier for In Vivo Breast Cancer Therapy

摘要

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) holds promise for treating skin, lung, bladder, and breast cancer. It combines nontoxic photo-sensitizer (PS), harmless visible light, and cell- and tissue-associated oxygen to generate cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as singlet oxygen (~1O_2). The resultant ROS kills malignant cancer cells by apoptosis and/or necrosis, shuts down the vasculature in tumors, and stimulates the host immune system, and as a result, to inhibit tumor growth and destruct tumors. There has been progress in the development of novel techniques for PDT with advancing efficiency partially because of a better understanding of therapeutic light and the development of fiber optic lasers. Some PSs have been approved by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) while many remain in clinical trials. They are efficiently being used to treat several types of cancers and a variety of other diseases. Currently, cancer treatment by PDT is limited by the difficulty in the accumulation of PS in the tumors. Thus, the greatest challenge in PDT of cancer is to find a new strategy for delivering PS to the tumors to achieve efficient tumor destruction.