R. M. Ion, M. A. Calin, Comparative study of micro and nano-sensitizers for photodynamic therapy of cancer, J. Optoelectron. Adv. Mater., 9/6(2007) 1933-1938

Title: Comparative study of micro and nano-sensitizers for photodynamic therapy of cancer

Abstract: The development of new virus inactivation procedures became an area of growing interest mainly due to increased demands concerning the safety of biological products. Photochemical processes represent the most promising methods for the future to inactivate viruses. In these methods, dyes are the most widely used photosensitising reagents. The current article covers a new interesting compound microsensitizer as 5,10,15,20-tetra-sulfonato-phenyl porphyrin (TSPP), and nanosensitizers, as fullerenes (C60) –coated TSPP suspension (C60/TSPP). There was studied in this paper the photodynamic inactivation of herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1) provided from rat, by the above macro and nanosensitizers. The concentration and temperature effects were evaluated. These sensitizers demonstrate a remarkable virucidal activity upon light activation, more pronounced for (C60/TSPP) than for TSPP, and after an optimum time of 300 minutes.

Key words: photodynamic inactivation, microorganisms, photosensitizer, fullerenes, porphyrins