Abstract
Breast cancer remains the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and the primary cause of cancer-related mortality among women globally. Existing conventional treatment strategies encompass a combination of interventions, including surgical procedures, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and hormone-based endocrine therapies. Although these approaches have markedly enhanced prognosis and survival rates, they are associated with several limitations, such as invasiveness, systemic toxicity, damage to healthy tissues, and the emergence of resistance to therapeutic agents. These challenges underscore the necessity for the development of more effective, targeted, and less toxic therapeutic modalities.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a localised, minimally invasive alternative that combines a photosensitiser (PS) molecule, light of a specific wavelength, and molecular oxygen to generate reactive oxygen species that selectively target and destroy cancerous cells. The integration of nanotechnology with PDT, through PS-loaded nanoparticles (NPs), has been shown to improve the delivery and accumulation within cancer cells. When combined with targeting monoclonal antibodies, the resulting system acquires active targeting capabilities, allowing them to recognize and selectively bind to overexpressed receptors on cancer cells. Therefore, the incorporation of PS molecules onto antibody-functionalised NPs enables for localised targeted drug delivery and activation, making this approach effective in PDT.
In this study, Hypericin, a naturally derived PS, was employed as the primary therapeutic agent due to its ability to generate reactive oxygen species upon light activation. However, despite its high phototoxicity against cancer cells, Hypericin’s clinical application has been limited by its poor solubility and lack of tumour-specific accumulation. To address these limitations, Hypericin was loaded onto PEGylated, green-synthesised gold nanoparticles. The gold nanoparticles were synthesised through a green chemistry approach, ...