Cervical cancer is a fatal disease with over 50% of modality rate. Although chemo and external beam (EB) radiation are used for cancer treatment, radiation therapy has a limited effect and toxicity. Interstitial-photodynamic therapy (I-PDT) is a promising method for locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC). However, there are still challenges to reducing the totoxicity of photosensitizer and improving photoactivation. Thus, we propose a sodium copper chlorophyll (SCC), organic compound, as a photosensitizer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of SCC as a photosensitizer, and develop an effective LACC treatment through SCC mediated I-PDT. The proposed therapy was evaluated on human cervical carcinoma cells and HeLa xenograft tumor models. After SCC injection (4 μg/ml and 0.1 g/kg), a 405 nm blue light (BL; 800 mW/cm2) was applied using a frontal (EB-PDT) and diffusing (I-PDT) fiber. SCC or BL was hardly cytotoxic (less than 10%) on cancer cells independently, whereas SCC mediated PDT rapidly and strongly reduced the viability. High intensity of ROS was measured within 20 min after treatment. In addition, SCC mediated PDT stimulated the expressions of cleaved caspase 3, 8, and 9 with downregulated pro-caspase. Moreover, the proposed I-PDT decreased tumor size by up to 37% less than EB-PDT with minimal thermal damage around tissue. The current study demonstrated the potential antitumor effect of SCC mediated I-PDT in human cervical carcinoma cell and xenograft tumor model as a result of biocompatible photosensitizer and improved photoactivation. Therefore, SCC mediated I-PDT can warrant an effective treatment of LACC.
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