ORIGINAL RESEARCH

A novel spheroid model for preclinical intercellular nanophotosensitizer-mediated tumor study

Maklygina YuS1, Romanishkin ID1, Ryabova AV1, Yakavec IV2,3, Bolotin L2, Loschenov VB1,4
About authors

1 Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

2 Research Centre for Automatic Control of Nancy, University of Lotaringia, Nancy, France

3 The Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus

4 National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow

Correspondence should be addressed: Yuliya S. Maklygina
Vavilova 38, Moscow, 119991; ur.usm.scisyhp@avonosmas.su

About paper

Funding: this work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Agreement RFMEFI61618X0096 # 14.616.21.0096 of February 12, 2018).

Received: 2018-06-26 Accepted: 2018-10-23 Published online: 2018-12-30
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Aluminum phthalocyanine nanoparticles (NP AlPc) possess the features that make them a promising photosensitizer. In particular, AlPc NPs do not fluoresce in free nanoform, fluoresce weakly in normal tissue, strongly in tumors and very strongly in macrophages. Also, such particles fluoresce and become phototoxic when contacting certain biocomponents. The type of biocomponents that bind to AlPc NPS defines intensity, lifetime, and spectral distribution of the fluorescence. This study aimed to investigate the peculiarities of nanophotosensitizer capturing in 3D models of cell cultures. The data obtained demonstrate that AlPc NPs are captured by cells inside the spheroid in the course of the first hour, as the fluorescent signal's growth shows. Having analyzed the fluctuations of the fluorescence signal of AlPc NPs inside a spheroid, we have also discovered that the cellular 3D models are heterogeneous. Laser irradiation (two-photon excitation at λ = 780/390 nm) resulted in photobleaching of fluorescence, which is probably associated with AlPc NP deactivation. Thus, the created model comprised of a 3D cell culture and AlPc NPs provides a better insight into metabolic processes in cells than monolayer 2D cell cultures. Besides, the model allows to evaluate the photodynamic effect depending on phenotypic properties of various areas in the heterogeneous 3D-structure.

Keywords: nanoparticles, aluminum phthalocyanine, nanophotosensitizer, multicellular tumor spheroid, laser scanning

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