Hypericin-Apomyoglobin: An Enhanced Photosensitizer Complex for the Treatment of Tumor Cells

Paolo Bianchini*, Marco Cozzolino, Michele Oneto, Luca Pesce, Francesca Pennacchietti, Massimiliano Tognolini, Carmine Giorgio, Santi Nonell, Luigi Cavanna, Pietro Delcanale, Stefania Abbruzzetti, Alberto Diaspro, Cristiano Viappiani

*Autor correspondiente de este trabajo

Producción científica: Artículo en revista indizadaArtículorevisión exhaustiva

24 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

Bioavailability of photosensitizers for cancer photodynamic therapy is often hampered by their low solubility in water. Here, we overcome this issue by using the water-soluble protein apomyoglobin (apoMb) as a carrier for the photosensitizer hypericin (Hyp). The Hyp-apoMb complex is quickly uptaken by HeLa and PC3 cells at submicromolar concentrations. Fluorescence emission of Hyp-apoMb is exploited to localize the cellular distribution of the photosensitizer. The plasma membrane is rapidly and efficiently loaded, and fluorescence is observed in the cytoplasm only at later times and to a lesser extent. Comparison with cells loaded with Hyp alone demonstrates that the uptake of the photosensitizer without the protein carrier is a slower, less efficient process, that involves the whole cell structure without preferential accumulation at the plasma membrane. Cell viability assays demonstrate that the Hyp-apoMb exhibits superior performance over Hyp. Similar results were obtained using tumor spheroids as three-dimensional cell culture models.

Idioma originalInglés
Páginas (desde-hasta)2024-2033
Número de páginas10
PublicaciónBiomacromolecules
Volumen20
N.º5
Fecha en línea anticipada17 abr 2019
DOI
EstadoPublicada - 13 may 2019

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