Anticancer effect of photodynamic therapy with photosan-loaded titanium dioxide nanoparticles on Panc-1 pancreatic cancer cells in vitro

To synthesize a novel photosensitizer loaded into hollow titanium dioxide nanoparticles (HTNP) and evaluate the efficacy of its anticancer effects on Panc-1 pancreatic cancer cells in vitro. DLS measurements showed that the size of the particles ranged from 80 to 1,000 nm, with an average diameter of 120 nm. The PDI of the Photosan-loaded HTNP was 0.112±0.01, indicating that the samples have excellent quality with a narrow size distribution in monomodal systems. The photodynamic effects were positively related to the photosensitizer concentration, the light dose, and the incubation duration. Using the same parameters, photodynamic therapy induced with Photosan-loaded HTNP had a more severe inhibition effect on cancer cell growth than that induced using free Photosan. Moreover, the nano-Photosan groups produced effects within a shorter duration than free Photosan. Neither the Photosan-loaded nanoparticles nor free Photosan affected H6C7 cells cultured from a normal pancreas. The flow cytometry results demonstrated that laser-induced cell death with Photosan-loaded HTNP was substantially more severe than that induced with free Photosan. Photosan-loaded HTNP are safe and stable and exhibit faster and more effective tumoricidal effects than free Photosan in the inhibition of Panc-1 cell growth.