Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Protamine conjugated fluorochromes: A new photosensitizer for photodynamic tumor therapy

16^th World Medical Nanotechnology Congress

September 03-04, 2018 Tokyo, Japan

Hoonsung Cho and Chul-Kyu Park

Chonnam National University, Republic of Korea
Gachon University, Republic of Korea

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

The Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is a promising alternative therapy that could be used adjunct to chemotherapy and surgery for curing cancer causing tissue destruction by visible light in the presence of a Photosensitizer (PS) and oxygen. Protamine is a high arginine peptide with membrane trans-locating and nuclear localizing properties. The reaction of an NHSester of Methylene Blue (MB) and clinical Protamine (Pro), to yield MB-Pro, was described in this context and demonstration of photo-toxicity which clinical protamine improved PDT effect was performed. The reaction between clinical Protamine (Pro) an NHS ester of MB is a solution phase reaction with the complete modification of the protamine peptides which feature a single reactive amine at the N-terminal proline and single carboxyl group at the C-terminal arginine. The aim of this study was to find a new type of Photosensitizer (PS) for PDT on in vitro and in vivo experiments and to assess the anti-tumor effect of PDT using the protamine conjugated-PS on the cancer cell line. Photodynamic cell death studies show that the MB-Pro produced has more efficient photodynamic activities than MB alone, causing rapid light induced cell death. The attachment of MB to clinical Pro, yielding MB-Pro, confers the membrane internalizing activity of its high arginine content on MB and can induce a rapid photodynamic cell death, presumably due to cell membrane rupture induced by light. The PDT using MBPro for HT-29 cells was very effective and those findings suggest that MB-Pro is one of candidate for photosensitizer in solid tumors.

Biography :

Hoonsung Cho has completed his PhD from University of Cincinnati and Postdoctoral studies from Harvard University School of Medicine. He is an Associate Professor of Chonnam National University. The main area of his interest is in multifunctional nanocarrier systems for imaging, targeting and therapy. His current research interests include imaging cell death with multimodal vital fluorochromes and detecting extracellular DNA and RNA using fluorochrome-functionalized nanoparticles as probes for detection and manipulation of these nucleic acids. He is also doing research on the surface treatment of biomaterials using plasma for the improvement of biocompatibility and regeneration.

E-mail: Cho.hoonsung@jnu.ac.kr