Clinical development of photodynamic agents and therapeutic applications
Open accessAbstract
Background: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is photo-treatment of malignant or benign diseases using photosensitizing agents, light, and oxygen which generates cytotoxic reactive oxygens and induces tumour regressions. Several photodynamic treatments have been extensively studied and the photosensitizers (PS) are key to their biological efficacy, while laser and oxygen allow to appropriate and flexible delivery for treatment of diseases. Introduction: In presence of oxygen and the specific light triggering, PS is activated from its ground state into an excited singlet state, generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) and induces apoptosis of cancer tissues. Those PS can be divided by its specific efficiency of ROS generation, absorption wavelength and chemical structure. Main body: Up to dates, several PS were approved for clinical applications or under clinical trials. Photofrin® is the first clinically approved photosensitizer for the treatment of cancer. The second generation of PS, Porfimer sodium (Photofrin®), Temoporfin (Foscan®), Motexafin lutetium, Palladium bacteriopheophorbide, Purlytin®, Verteporfin (Visudyne®), Talaporfin (Laserphyrin®) are clinically approved or under-clinical trials. Now, third generation of PS, which can dramatically improve cancer-targeting efficiency by chemical modification, nano-delivery system or antibody conjugation, are extensively studied for clinical development. Conclusion: Here, we discuss up-to-date information on FDA-approved photodynamic agents, the clinical benefits of these agents. However, PDT is still dearth for the treatment of diseases in specifically deep tissue cancer. Next generation PS will be addressed in the future for PDT. We also provide clinical unmet need for the design of new photosensitizers.
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Blue light (450 to 495 nm) is used to maximize absorbance and longer wavelengths of light (beyond 620 nm) have best tissue penetration.
“Blue light (450 to 495 nm) is used to maximize absorbance and longer wavelengths of light (beyond 620 nm) have best tissue penetration.107,108”
From Effect of skin color on optical properties and the implications for medical optical technologies: a review (2024) · cites this paper as [108]
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- Authors
- Baskaran, R., Lee, J., & Yang, S.-G.
- Affiliations
- Inha University (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Yang, Su-Geun
- Venue
- Biomaterials Research
- Published
- 2018-09-26
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 25-25
- ISSN
- 1226-4601 (ISSN-L)
- 2055-7124
- PMC
- PMC6158913
- OpenAlex
- W2893482711
- Cited by
- 564
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 49 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 88 · 2022: 93 · 2021: 84 · 2020: 72 · 2019: 29
- FWCI
- 8.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Biomaterials Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation of Korea (2016H1D3A1938159, 2018R1A6A1A03025523, 2017R1D1A1B03035654)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Photodynamic Therapy Research Studies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Porphyrin and Phthalocyanine Chemistry
- Keywords
- photodynamic therapy, photosensitizers, reactive oxygen species, apoptosis, cancer therapy, Photofrin, verteporfin, porphyrins, nanoparticle drug delivery, clinical development
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