RESUMO
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) are promising candidates for cancer treatment and their efficiency can be further enhanced by using a combination of both. While chloroaluminum phthalocyanine (AlClPc) has been studied extensively as a photosensitizer in PDT, nanographene oxide (nGO) has shown promise in PTT due to its high absorption of near-infrared radiation. In this work, we investigate the energy transport between AlClPc and nGO for their combined use in phototherapies. We use density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT to analyze the electronic structure of AlClPc and its interaction with nGO. Based on experimental parameters, we model the system's morphology and implement it in Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations to investigate the energy transfer mechanism between the compounds. Our KMC calculations show that the experimentally observed fluorescence quenching requires modeling both the energy transfer from dyes to nGO and a molecular aggregation model. Our results provide insights into the underlying mechanisms responsible for the fluorescence quenching observed in AlClPc/nGO aggregates, which could impact the efficacy of photodynamic therapy.
RESUMO
Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) are miniaturized devices based upon the electronic responses of organic semiconductors. In comparison to their conventional inorganic counterparts, organic semiconductors are cheaper, can undergo reversible doping processes and may have electronic properties chiefly modulated by molecular engineering approaches. More recently, OTFTs have been designed as gas sensor devices, displaying remarkable performance for the detection of important target analytes, such as ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The present manuscript provides a comprehensive review on the working principle of OTFTs for gas sensing, with concise descriptions of devices' architectures and parameter extraction based upon a constant charge carrier mobility model. Then, it moves on with methods of device fabrication and physicochemical descriptions of the main organic semiconductors recently applied to gas sensors (i.e., since 2015 but emphasizing even more recent results). Finally, it describes the achievements of OTFTs in the detection of important gas pollutants alongside an outlook toward the future of this exciting technology.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: In the photodynamic therapy (PDT), the photosensitizer absorbs light and transfers the energy of the excited state to the oxygen in the cell environment producing reactive oxygen species (ROS), that in its turn, may cause cell damage. In the photothermal therapy (PTT), light also is responsible for activating the photothermal agent, which converts the absorbed energy in heat. Graphene oxide is a carbon-based material that presents photothermal activity. Its physical properties allow the association with the photosensitizer methylene blue and consequently the production of ROS when submitted to light irradiation. Therefore, the association between nanographene oxide and methylene blue could represent a strategy to enhance therapeutic actions. In this work, we report the nanographene oxide-methylene blue platform (NanoGO-MB) used to promote tumor ablation in combination with photodynamic and photothermal therapies against a syngeneic orthotopic murine breast cancer model. RESULTS: In vitro, NanoGO-MB presented 50% of the reactive oxygen species production compared to the free MB after LED light irradiation, and a temperature increase of ~ 40 °C followed by laser irradiation. On cells, the ROS production by the nanoplatform displayed higher values in tumor than normal cells. In vivo assays demonstrated a synergistic effect obtained by the combined PDT/PTT therapies using NanoGO-MB, which promoted complete tumor ablation in 5/5 animals. Up to 30 days after the last treatment, there was no tumor regrowth compared with only PDT or PTT groups, which displayed tumoral bioluminescence 63-fold higher than the combined treatment group. Histological studies confirmed that the combined therapies were able to prevent tumor regrowth and liver, lung and spleen metastasis. In addition, low systemic toxicity was observed in pathologic examinations of liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. CONCLUSIONS: The treatment with combined PDT/PTT therapies using NanoGO-MB induced more toxicity on breast carcinoma cells than on normal cells. In vivo, the combined therapies promoted complete tumor ablation and metastasis prevention while only PDT or PTT were unable to stop tumor development. The results show the potential of NanoGO-MB in combination with the phototherapies in the treatment of the breast cancer and metastasis prevention.
