Killing Just Cancer Cells
In order to treat cancer, patients had depended on anti-cancer drug injection and chemoradiation therapy in the past, causing a financial burden and side effects with the human body. Accordingly, the PDT method, which absorbs particular wavelengths to create free oxygen radicals and destroys surrounding cancer calls, has been attracting attention. However, it was difficult to use excellent photosensitizers due to its insolubility. They were also remained at several organs in the body after treatment, reacted with the sunlight to produce free oxygen radicals, damaging normal tissues.
The research team led by Prof. Min Dal-hee of Seoul National University announced on April 23 that it has developed the novel photodynamic therapeutic system of using a two-dimensional "nanosheet" as a new carrier of the photosensitizer, which selectively targets cancer cells. It paid attention to a manganese dioxide nanosheet, which is highly stable in the blood and can easily breaks down in cancer cells, in a bid to overcome the limits of conventional photodynamic treatments.
Based on the fact that folate receptors are excessively present in many cancer cells, the team made a manganese dioxide nanosheet coated with folic acid.
The new two-dimensional nanosheet only targets cancer tumors so it can minimize the damage to other cells. In addition, it has a proven efficacy even when reducing the use of the dose of poorly water-soluble photosensitizer by a tenth compared to existing photodynamic therapies.
After treatment, the complex is dissolved in the body so it is less toxic.
The research team confirmed an efficacy of the complex on experiments on animals and it expects to push into the anti-cancer drug market through clinical trials in the future. In particular, the new method will greatly increase the success rate of photodynamic treatments on patients suffering from skin cancer, lung cancer, esophageal cancer and cervical cancer. Prof. Min said, “We will be able to develop the latest method to a next-generation cancer treatment technology with less side effects but with high operation success rates.”
The findings were published in an international scientific journal "2D Materials" on the 11th.