Porphyrin conjugated SiC/SiO_x nanowires for X-ray-excited photodynamic therapy

摘要

The development of innovative nanosystems opens new perspectives for multidisciplinary applications at the frontier between materials science and nanomedicine. Here we present a novel hybrid nanosystem based on cytocompatible inorganic SiC/SiO_x core/shell nanowires conjugated via click-chemistry procedures with an organic photosensitizer, a tetracarboxyphenyl porphyrin derivative. We show that this nanosystem is an efficient source of singlet oxygen for cell oxidative stress when irradiated with 6?MV X-Rays at low doses (0.4–2?Gy). The in-vitro clonogenic survival assay on lung adenocarcinoma cells shows that 12 days after irradiation at a dose of 2?Gy, the cell population is reduced by about 75% with respect to control cells. These results demonstrate that our approach is very efficient to enhance radiation therapy effects for cancer treatments.