Efficacy of Methylene Blue and Aliminium Phthalocyanine Mediated Sonophotodynamic Therapy on Prostate Cancer Cell Lines

Abstract

Sono-photodynamic therapy (SPDT) is a new modality for cancer treatment that uses synergetic effect of ultrasound and light to activate sensitizers and produce mechanical, sonochemical and photochemical activities to kill cancer cells. This study aims to investigate the antitumor effects and possible mechanisms of methylene blue (MB) and aluminium phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate (AlPc) mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT), sonodynamic therapy (SDT) and SPDT on prostate cancer cell lines (PC3, LNCaP) in vitro.Cell viability was measured by the use of MTT assay, apoptotic morphological characteristics were analyzed using HOPI staining and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured using Muse oxidative stress kit. Western blotting was employed to analyze the activity of the apoptosis related protein (Caspase proteins, PARP, Bax and Bcl-2), and the autophagy associated protein (LC3, LAMP-2 and Beclin-1) expressions.The MTT results revealed that although PDT and SDT also led to a decrease in cell viability, SPDT provided a more prominent cell viability loss when compared with control, PDT and SDT groups. In all groups, MB was observed to be more cytotoxic and led to a more prominent decrease in cell viability in comparison to AlPc. There was a significant increase in the early and late apoptotic cell populations in SDT, PDT and SPDT groups. In addition, alterations in the activity of apoptosis related proteins were observed in SPDT group. Moreover, ROS production in cells was found to be markedly increased in PDT and SPDT groups when compared to control and SDT groups.The results demonstrated that PDT or SDPT exert their action on cell viability probably via the formation of ROS species which in turn induces apoptosis and cell death. Both therapies are promising potential therapeutic strategies for the treatment of prostate cancer.