Antitumor effect of nanophotothermolysis mediated by zinc phthalocyanine particles

Nanophotothermolysis (NPhT) effect is considered to be an approach for the development of highly selective modalities for anticancer treatment. Herein, we evaluated an antitumor efficacy of NPhT with intravenously injected zinc phthalocyanine particles (ZnPcPs) in murine subcutaneous syngeneic tumor models. In S37 sarcoma-bearing mice a biodistribution of ZnPcPs was studied and the high antitumor efficacy of ZnPcPs-mediated NPhT was shown, including a response of metastatic lesions. The morphological investigation showed the main role of a local NPhT-induced vascular damage in the tumor growth and tumor spread inhibition. Murine tumors of different histological origin were not equally sensitive to the treatment. The results demonstrate a potential of ZnPcPs-mediated NPhT for treatment of surface tumors. Confined photothermal effect of nanophotothermolysis (NPhT) with zinc phthalocyanine particles (ZnPcPs; size of 75–150 nm) induced by high-energy nanosecond laser irradiation leads to a critical injury of blood vessels in the tumor bed and is able to provide a highly selective and long-term antitumor effect in subcutaneous murine syngeneic tumor models. [Display omitted]