Preparation, characterization and cytotoxicity of carbon nanotube–chitosan–phycocyanin complex

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) or photothermal therapy (PTT) using nanomaterials has shown great prospect for cancer treatment. Phycocyanin (PC) is a photoharvesting pigment and is also an attractive candidate for PDT. The multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) is a potent candidate for PTT due to its extraordinary photo-to-thermal energy conversion efficiency upon excitation with near-infrared (NIR) light. To date, although MWNT–CS complexes have been well studied, no report about the reconjugation of MWNT–CS with phycocyanin is available in the literature. Here, by using water-soluble chitosan (CS), we prepared and characterized a novel biomaterial, MWNT–CS–PC, with the potential for PDT and PTT. The cytotoxicity experiments found that MWNT–CS–PC exhibited cell growth inhibition activity. Moreover, with irradiation of NIR light (808 nm) or visible light (532 nm), the photoinduced cytotoxicity was indeed enhanced. These results suggest that MWNT–CS–PC may potentially serve as a future photodynamic and photothermal therapy for cancer.