Beata Osiecka, Kamil Jurczyszyn, Krzysztof Symonowicz, Andrzej Bronowicz, Paweł Ostasiewicz, Elzbieta Czapińska, Katarzyna Hotowy, Małgorzata Krzystek-Korpacka, Elzbieta Gebarowska, Ilona Izykowska, Piotr Dziegiel, Grzegorz Terlecki, Piotr Ziółkowski
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a well-known method for the treatment of malignant tumors, and its principles have been well established over the past 30 years. This therapy involves the application of a chemical called a photosensitizer and its subsequent excitation with light at the appropriate wavelength and energy. Topical photodynamic therapy with aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is an alternative therapy for many malignant processes, including nonmelanoma skin cancers such as basal-cell carcinoma (BCC). Our novel approach for this study was to use a liposomal formulation of 5-ALA and its methyl ester (commercially available as metvix) both in vitro and in vivo, and to check whether the liposome-entrapped precursors of photosensitizers can induce the expression of metalloproteinases (MMPs) in animal tumor cells and in other tissues from tumor-bearing rats and in selected cell lines in vitro...
December 2010: Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters