Abstract
Cervical cancer is the fourth cause of cancer death in women. Curcumin has antineoplastic properties. Furthermore, curcumin may be used as a photosensitizing agent in Photodynamic Therapy. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Photodynamic Therapy in cellular viability using curcumin-nanoemulsion as a photosensitizing drug in cervical carcinoma cell lines. The empty nanoemulsion presented very low cytotoxicity in all cell lines analyzed. Additionally, the incubation with curcumin-nanoemulsion at 20 μM of curcumin showed more than 80% of cell viability for cell lines. Nanoemulsions were shown to be internalized inside cells by fluorescence microscopy and were observed in the intracellular environment for up to 36 hours after incubation with cell lines. In addition, after the Photodynamic Therapy we observed a high phototoxic effect of the curcumin-nanoemulsion with less than 5% of viable cells after irradiation. This was accompanied by an increase in caspase-3/caspase-7 activities after cell treatment with curcumin-nanoemulsion and Photodynamic Therapy, suggesting cell death by apoptosis. We conclude that the curcumin-nanoemulsion formulation behaves as a photosensitizing drug in Photodynamic Therapy and shows potential as an alternative treatment to cervical lesions using an endoscopic diode fiber laser setup for in situ activation or cavity activation using a diffuse fiber delivery system.
Highlights
Cervical cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women [1]
This method allows the determination of the mean diameter of the particle, the polydispersity index (PdI), and the zeta potential of the particle population
The nanoemulsion delivery system for curcumin developed in this study was internalized more efficiently than free curcumin for both cervical carcinoma cell lines (CasKi and SiHa)
Summary
Cervical cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women [1]. The most effective treatment for cervical cancer is achieved through a combination of cisplatin-based chemotherapy with radiation [3]. The clinical use of this combination treatment is limited because of several serious side effects, such as nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity, hematological toxicity, chemoresistance, and off-target damage to normal tissues [4]. In the early stages of the disease, this treatment regimen shows a patient survival rate of ∼90%. The survival rates decrease to 17% for patients in advanced disease stages [4, 5] due to the presence
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