Abstract
Cancer is a genetic disease characterised by uncontrolled cellular proliferation and metastasis that have caused significant mortality in developing countries of Africa. Despite research and awareness, breast cancer remains a major health threat amongst women with more than one million new cases diagnosed globally every year. Chemotherapy is the standard treatment modality for most cancers, which increases a patient’s life expectancy yet poses a major challenge of drug resistance, killing of non-cancer cells and severe side effects.
Doxorubicin (DOX) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic and anticancer drug used to treat a variety of human malignancies like breast cancer, cervical cancer and leukaemia. Its molecular mechanism of action includes; intercalating with DNA and disruption of topoisomerase II enzyme, thus halting DNA replication and ultimately leading to cell death. Conversely, its use has been limited despite its effect against proliferating cancer cells due to the risk of cardiac damage and acquisition of resistance associated with it.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a photochemical process of inducing localized tissue damage through administration of a photosensitizer (PS) followed by light irradiation that initiates tumour damage. PDT treatment combines the interaction between an excited PS and molecular oxygen to cause injury and death of targeted cells. PDT is considered a safe and promising therapy due to the possibility of the use of reactive oxygen species (ROS) towards killing cancer cells.
A combination of therapy to treat cancer malignancies are at the forefront of research with the aim to reduce drug doses and diminish the possibility of resistance. Combining chemotherapy and PDT could be a promising and effective approach in inducing cancer cell death given multitarget strategy.
In an attempt to achieve additive and preferably synergistic effects on cancer therapy, the present study aimed at determining the concentration of DOX and sulphonated Zinc Phthalocyanine (ZnPcS)-mediated PDT causing a 50% decrease in viability of Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) breast cancer cells (IC50) in order to determine cellular response and identify the mechanism of cell death induced by the combination of DOX and ZnPcS-mediated PDT on MCF-7 breast cancer cells...
M.Tech. (Biomedical Technology)