C-phycocyanin-based nanoplatform as a photosensitiser for targeted photodynamic-mediated cell death

Abstract

ABSTRACT C-phycocyanin (CPC) has advantages of biocompatibility and photodynamic properties. With the aim to increase specificity to cancer cells, we prepared CPC nanoparticles (CPC NPs) and performed conjugation of hyaluronic acid (HA) on the CPC NPs . HA-conjugated CPC NPs (HA-CPC NPs) had an average size of 296.12 ± 5.6 nm with a spherical shape HA-CPC NPs effectively generated reactive oxygen species by 635 nm laser irradiation while maintaining the photodynamic characteristics of CPC. Although no cytotoxicity was observed in the cells treated with HA-CPC NPs without the laser irradiation, CT26 cells showed decreased viability significantly after treatment of HA-CPC NPs by photodynamic-mediated cytotoxicity under laser irradiation. In particular, HA-CPC NPs were effectively accumulated in the cytoplasm of CT26 cells, and their accumulation showed marked decrease by pretreatment of HA, indicating that HA-CPC NPs specifically targeted cancer cells. In this regard, we believe that HA-CPC NPs could become an attractive nano-platform for cancer cell-targeted photodynamic therapy.