Semiconductor and Carbon Quantum Dots in Photodynamic Therapy

Christodoulis, Panagiotis (2018) Semiconductor and Carbon Quantum Dots in Photodynamic Therapy. Research Paper, Nanoscience.

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Abstract

Photodynamic Therapy (PTD) is an important tool in the fight against various diseases, including cancer, and thus it is essential for the efficacy of the technique to be optimized. The treatment occur upon irradiation of a photosensitizer close to environmental oxygen, resulting in the generation of reactive oxygen species which destroy the target cells in their vicinity. Quantum dots (QDs), with their special optical properties arising from their tiny size, possess considerable potential in improving PTD. Not only they can act as energy donors, extending the region of wavelength at which the treatment can operate, but they can also act themselves as photosensitizers (PS) generating singlet oxygen (1O2). In addition they can act as agents for two-photon excitation (TPE), enabling the use of irradiation of longer wavelengths which increases the depth at which PTD can operate. However, despite their promising potential, initials reports using semiconductor QDs showed that these systems are unable to bypass important drawbacks like toxicity and low 1O2 generation. On the other hand carbon dots (CB), owing to their hydrophilic functional groups, possess the necessary biocompatibility and in vivo studies show that they exceed semiconductor QDs in performance. Among them graphene QDs (GQDs) show the most promising results combining biocompatibility and high 1O2 generation via a unique mechanism termed multistate sensitization. Finally, even though this field is quite immature, QDs (and especially CDs) have been tested as double agents combining PTD with Photothermal Therapy (PTT) with positive in vivo results.

Item Type:	Thesis (Research Paper)
Supervisor name:	Salvati, A.
Degree programme:	Nanoscience
Thesis type:	Research Paper
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2018
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2018 09:48
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/17315

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