Specific light exposure of galactosylated Zn(II) phthalocyanines for selective PDT effects on breast cancer cells

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a clinically approved non-invasive and curative procedure for different oncological and non-oncological applications. PDT is still under development due to several limitations which lead to partially successful photodynamic response. The crucial steps in PDT procedure are binding of the photosensitizer to outer cell membrane, its penetration and subcellular localization which envisage the target sites of reactive oxygen species generated during irradiation. Since the surrounding normal cells are also exposed to the photosensitizer and the ambient daylight can be harmful for healthy tissues after therapeutic light application, the challenging task in PDT research is to optimize the procedure in a way to reach tumor cell selectivity. The present study outlines the influence of a light exposure pre-treatment (prior therapeutic light) with specific wavelengths (365 nm and 635 nm) on the uptake, the localization and further re-localization of galactose-substituted Zn(II) phthalocyanines into MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. The in vitro photodynamic effect towards tumor cells was studied in comparison to the normal cell line Balb/c 3T3 (clone 31) after pre-irradiation with UV light (365 nm) and red LED (635 nm). The results suggest that the galactose functional groups of Zn(II) phthalocyanine and the harmless UV light at 365 nm favor the selective PDT response.