Porphyrin-lipids are ideal building blocks for the formation of self-assembled nanoparticles in multimodal imaging and therapeutics. In this study, a ~120 nm porphyrin-lipid shelled nanoemulsion loaded with paclitaxel (PLNE-PTX) was designed for combination of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemotherapy. The stable PLNE-PTX had sufficient loading efficiency of PTX (~3.1 %) and porphyrin (~18.3 %), and efficient tumor accumulation in mice (~5.4 ID %/g). For in vivo studies, the combination of PDT and chemotherapy (~223.2 mm3) illustrated an increased tumor growth inhibition compared with PDT (~566.9 mm3) or chemotherapy alone (~544.3 mm3) on day 16. Furthermore, a 4-fold decreased PTX dosage in combination treatment was achieved compared to chemotherapy alone, which could lower PTX toxicities. No significant side effects were observed from blood tests and H stains in mice after PLNE-PTX injection. Thus, PLNE-PTX is a suitable candidate for the synergistic and safe combination of PDT and chemotherapy for tumor treatment.

Combination Therapies Involving Photodynamic Therapy reviews the current state of development of PDT and presents the foreseeable advancements of combination approaches to therapeutic strategies.

The main objective of this book is to present the recent applications of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in treating cancer and other diseases. The limitations associated with current PDT agents, and the synthetic designs that have been used in various laboratories are also discussed. The utility of certain tumor-avid agent for cancer imaging (fluorescence, PET, MRI) is also summarized. The book also includes the use of delivery vehicles, including nanoparticles in improving the tumor-specificity of the desired agents. The book is basically focused on the translational approach of drug development. By providing certain specific examples, a clear concept of moving a 'product' from the bench to bed-side is also discussed.To have a clear concept of drug development the book is divided in three parts — Medicinal Chemistry, Mechanistic and Clinical studies. Each part includes the contributions from the leading scientists with extensive experience in the respective field. The handbook is assembled by renowned scientists Dr Dougherty, known as the father of PDT, Dr Kessel, well known for his contributions on mechanism of PDT and Dr Pandey for his inventions in developing improved agents for PDT and cancer-imaging.

As a new concept of cancer treatment, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has gained great attention in the last few decades. Compared to classical treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, PDT is a noninvasive, localized treatment of lesions that shows fewer side effects and has low systemic toxicity. In Chapter One, the basic mechanisms, applications and functional nanomaterials-based drug delivery systems for photodynamic therapy of cancer are reviewed. Chapter Two summarizes the application of different carbon based nanomaterials as agents for PDT and discusses current state-of-the-art use of fullerenes and their derivatives, carbon nanotubes and graphene quantum dots in PDT. Chapter Three covers the benefits and pitfalls of using chemi- and bioluminescent systems as intracellular excitation sources in PDT. Bioluminescence is a widespread natural phenomenon, which consists on emission of light resulting from the oxidation of a substrate in a reaction catalyzed by an enzyme in a biological system. Chapter Four addresses in the synthesis, characterization, and photodynamic activity of a novel hydrophobic photosensitizer 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(benzo[b]thiophene) Porphyrin (BTP) and water soluble photosensitizer 5,10,15,20-Tetrakis(7- sulfonatobenzo[b]thiophene) Porphyrin (SBTP). The authors lab is engaged in the synthesis of PDT molecules incorporating benzothiophene moiety to the meso-position of porphyrin molecules. Chapter Five discusses the Guidelines for Gastroenterological Endoscopy in Patients on Oral Antithrombotic Treatment established by the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society (JGES).These guidelines classify endoscopic interventions according to the risk of hemorrhage and specify the management of various antithrombotic drugs. Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) are classified as high-risk procedures for hemorrhage, but PDT is not included in the guidelines. Because PDT causes ischemic necrosis of tumor tissue, the authors say this could possibly be performed safely in patients on oral antithrombotic therapy. The authors of Chapter Six developed a method of the initial concentration of protoporphyrin-IX in the operated removing glioblastoma tissue using the calibration curve of the fluorescent intensity and the known Pp-IX concentration in order to estimate of the more correlated with the cure rate.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment modality that relies on a combination of non-toxic photosensitizers, oxygen, and light to generate cytotoxic reactive oxygen species. PDT traditionally has been used in superficial cancers, but with the advent of fiber optic technologies and laparoscopic surgical techniques it has become feasible in a variety of deep-seated tumours. Despite these technological and clinical advancements, PDT has several limitations that prevent it from becoming a mainstay clinical modality. First, clinical PSs lack tumour specificity, which results in prolonged photosensitivity in patients as well as suboptimal PS tumour accumulation. Secondly, PDT combination with systemic therapies such as chemotherapy, remains underexplored, which restricts PDT indications. This thesis seeks to address these limitations by advancing PS design and investigating PDT in combination with systemic chemotherapy.Chapters 3 and 4 of this thesis describe the development of two porphyrin-based prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted PSs with complementary phototherapeutic and imaging properties. These PSMA-targeted porphyrins demonstrated excellent specificity and favorable tumour accumulation, which translated into potent PDT. Furthermore, it was discovered that the inclusion of a 9-amino acid D-peptide linker between the porphyrin molecule and the targeting ligand is a robust strategy to improve pharmacokinetics, particularly half-life, of a targeted PS that further enhanced its tumour accumulation. This dissertation also explores whether the use of porphyrin supramolecular interactions within nanoparticles could yield phototheranostic agents with tunable properties. Specifically, Chapter 6 of my thesis probes the effects of different porphyrin conjugates on the resulting nanoparticle's imaging and phototherapeutic properties. While photodynamic therapy can be effective as a stand-alone modality, its combination with other mainstay clinical techniques such as chemotherapy is extremely promising as it expands the range of cancers it can be applied to. Chapter 5 explores the use of subtherapeutic photodynamic treatment as a priming strategy to modulate the tumour microenvironment and enhance delivery of various nanoparticles including clinically approved nanomedicines. Overall, this dissertation pursues several research avenues for PDT advancement, which will hopefully aid the development of next generation clinical photosensitizers and more precise and versatile PDT protocols.

The book "Nanocosmetics and nanomedicines: new approaches for skin care” contains a summary of the most important nanocarriers for skin delivery. Although “nanocosmetics” is a subject widely commented in the academy and the beauty industry, a book covering the skin care treatments using nanotechnological approaches with cosmetics and nanomedicines is still missing, therefore the need for this publication. This book is divided in three parts: The first one (Part A) is devoted to a brief review on the main topics related to the skin delivery and to the introduction of the subject “nanocosmetics”. The second part (Part B) presents different types of nanocarriers applied as skin delivery systems for cosmetics or drugs. The last part (Part C) shows a wide range of applications of nanotechnology on the skin care area as well as on dermatocosmetic and dermatological fields.

This book presents a thorough discussion of the physics, biology, chemistry and medicinal science behind a new and important area of materials science and engineering: polymer nanocomposites. The tremendous opportunities of polymer nanocomposites in the biomedical field arise from their multitude of applications and their ability to satisfy the vastly different functional requirements for each of these applications. In the biomedical field, a polymer nanocomposite system must meet certain design and functional criteria, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, mechanical properties, and, in some cases, aesthetic demands. The content of this book builds on what has been learnt in elementary courses about synthesising polymers, different nanoparticles, polymer composites, biomedical requirements, uses of polymer nanocomposites in medicine as well as medical devices and the major mechanisms involved during each application. The impact of hybrid nanofillers and synergistic composite mixtures which are used extensively or show promising outcomes in the biomedical field are also discussed. These novel materials vary from inorganic/ceramic-reinforced nanocomposites for mechanical property improvement to peptide-based nanomaterials, with the chemistry designed to render the entire material biocompatible.