Among several types of chemotherapies, light therapy is the most preferred treatment. Unfortunately, the current therapy being used has little efficiency and is very costly. The photosensitizer, which makes up for such shortcomings, has been invented by a POSTECH research team led by Professor Hee Cheul Choi (Chem).
Prof. Choi, Dr. Hye kyung Moon, and Prof. Sang-ho Lee from Kosin University College of Medicine, succeeded in synthesizing nanowire from pure Zinc-Phthalocyanine molecules that disperses well in the water and has proven to be useful in tumor treatment.
The therapy involves the injection of light-absorbing photosensitizer into the body, and the exposure of laser with certain wavelengths to the affected area to eradicate cancer cells. Although it works, porphyrin derivatives and phthalocyanine, which are widely used photosensitizers, have a critical flaw in that they do not dissolve in water, thus unable to be absorbed in a human body. Many scientists have put in efforts to create a new soluble molecule, but the price of the production is too expensive due to the complicated process.
The Zinc-Phth- alocyanine nan- owire can inter- act with water molecules at the maximum level and remain dispe rsed in the water for a long time. Accordingly, it resulted in 40% of tumor treatment efficiency and succeeded in removing most cancer cells by a test on animals.
The research was published in Nature Publishing Group Asia Materials, which is an affiliated publication of the renowned journal Nature. It is supported jointly by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).