Objective: Zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPcSmix) was used as the photosensitizer (PS) in this study to investigate the cell death patterns as a result of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in a breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) in vitro using a 680 nm diode laser at a fluence of 5 J/cm(2).
Background: PDT is a noninvasive form of cancer therapy, successfully applied for the treatment of various cancer types.
Methods: Flow cytometry using Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), a cell death immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and gene expression analysis following ZnPcSmix mediated PDT were performed to determine the induced cell death pathways.
Results: The apoptotic cells abounded after the treatment, nuclear fragmentation was seen as oligonucleosomal degradation and increased expression of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), DNA fragmentation factor alpha (DFFA1), and caspase 2 (CASP2) genes, indicated that apoptosis is the main induced mode of cell death.
Conclusions: ZnPcSmix mediated PDT led to an apoptotic cell death pathway and the PS used showed its ability to stimulate and initiate programmed cell death.