In-vitro co-delivery of decarbazine and photosense using poly lactic-co-glycolic acid nanocarrier for combinational therapy.

PLGA (Poly lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles are a new trend for drug delivery due to their good biodegradability properties. In this study, we have synthesized PLGA nanoparticles by solvent evaporation method and loaded decarbazine (DTIC, 5-3,3-(dimethyl-ltriazeno)imidazole-4-carboxamide) and photosense (AlPc4) drug alone as well as combined with two different concentrations i-e 25 nM and 250 nM. No cytotoxicity (viability ∼ 100%) was observed for different treatment arms either alone or in co-delivery of nano-formulation for Rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cell culture which showed the biocompatibility of carrier. On comparison, the Photodynamic therapy (PDT) alone showed more significant cell death then the combinational therapy (PDT + chemotherapy) at 2 joule /cm2 and 5 joule /cm2. Lower doses co-delivery showed light dose dependent toxicity to culture i.e., 0% death @ 2 joule /cm2, ∼ 40% death @ 5 joule /cm2. Gene expressions of four apoptosis related genes (CASP3, CASP9, PARP1 and P53) were quantified by RT-PCR which shows down regulation for all the treatment arms indicating the absence of apoptosis for the cell death during PDT and combinational therapy. It was concluded that apoptosis related genes were down-regulated and morphological changes i.e., swelling and disruption suggest that the mode of cell death was necrosis.

Study of synergistic effects of Ficus Carica leaves extract mediated chemo-photodynamic therapy on rhabdomyosarcoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy for rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) is effective, but it has critical side effects and unavoidable challenges. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an approach to treating cancer with relatively moderate side effects. Plant products are a rich source of polyphenols, which have potent antioxidant and anticancer activities. Therefore, their research has become an emerging field in recent decades. PURPOSE: This work aimed to evaluate the potential of hydrophobic extract of Ficus Carica (FC) to determine whether FC in the presence of low dose chemo and Aluminium Phthalocyanine (Photosense®) mediated photodynamic therapy synergistically enhances the treatment efficacy of RD cells. METHOD: FC with and without combination with individual therapeutic modalities like photosense mediated photodynamic therapy, chemotherapy, and their combinations were studied for cell viability and morphological changes in invitro RD cells. A semiconductor diode laser (630 nm) was used as a light source in PDT. The cytotoxic effect of FC on cell viability and cellular morphological changes were investigated by MTT reagent and a camera attached to an inverted visible light microscope. The effect of FC, followed by di-combination with low dose chemo (doxorubicin-HCl, and dacarbazine), Photosense® mediated PDT and chemo-Photosense® mediated PDT (tri-combination) at 630 nm diode laser and 10 J/cm2 fluency were also investigated by MTT reagent. The combination index method is used to identify the synergistic effect of combination therapy by using CompuSyn software based on the Chou-Talalay method. RESULTS: The dose-dependent effect of FC on cell viability and cellular morphological changes were observed in the RD cell line. It was found that the pre incubation of FC potentiated the anticancer effect as a neoadjuvant agent for doxorubicin-HCl and decarbazine based chemotherapy, Photosense® mediated PDT and chemo-PDT (tri-combination) with synergistic effect (CI<1). CONCLUSION: These results suggest a possible thread that the low dose combination of the aforementioned therapeutic modalities in the presence of FC remarkably enhances the treatment efficacy of RD in comparison with a single-agent treatment modality. The proposed sequence of FC with chemo and PDT might present better therapeutic outcomes in RD therapies and may provide result for RD metastasis. FC may also be used in the application of phyto-PDT to cancer in the future.