Development of self-luminescent PDT using breast cancer targeted protein

Study Summary

Despite the usefulness of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in disease treatment, conventional PDT with photosensitizers has some issues, such as in vivo accumulation and light penetration. To solve these issue, we developed a new method, termed “self-luminescent PDT” based on a protein biosensor, tailored to exert self-luminescence, ROS generation, target specificity, and theranostic functions utilizing 3D holotomography. Self-luminescent PDT is also called bioluminescence-induced proteinaceous PDT (BLiP-PDT). This method relies on expressing protein probes tailored to exert self-luminescence and ROS generation. These probes have target specificity, and therefore, can be used for theranostics. Self-luminescent PDT exhibited remarkable targeted effects in primary breast cancer cells from patients and in vivo tumor xenograft mouse models. The combination of bioluminescent proteins induces selective active oxygen in cancer cells without external light irradiation, confirming the therapeutic effect in real time.

[Figure 1] Development of self-luminescent photodynamic therapy (PDT) utilizing 3D holotomography

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first BLiP-PDT probe without nanotoxicity and genetoxicity, which is particularly advantageous for minimising photodamage to normal tissues, due to extremely low light energy level. Most importantly, BLiP-PDT does not encounter any light penetration issue in vivo, providing a simple therapeutic platform that does not require an external light source, which is not yet possible in conventional PDT methods. Therefore, we believe that this BLiP-PDT method will be immediately useful as a new theranostic approach against various cancers and will make a significant contribution to cancer therapy