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Photoimmunotherapy
Photoimmunotherapy (PIT) is an oncological treatment that combines photodynamic therapy of tumor with immunotherapy treatment. Combining photodynamic therapy with immunotherapy enhances the immunostimulating response and has synergistic effects for metastatic cancer treatment. PIT is type of molecular targeted cancer therapy, which allows the selective destruction of cancer cells without any damage to normal tissues. It is a light-based cancer therapy, which was developed and pioneered by Professor Julia Levy and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Canada, in 1983. Professor Julia Levy's research has also been pivotal in the clinical approval of Visudyne and Photofrin. Over the last 35 years, PIT has been studied extensively in vitro and in vivo by numerous research teams all over the world. More recently, significant strides in PIT have been made by Professor Kobayashi and his colleagues at National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland. Conventional photodynamic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photodynamic Therapy
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a form of phototherapy involving light and a photosensitizing chemical substance used in conjunction with molecular oxygen to elicit cell death ( phototoxicity). PDT is used in treating acne, wet age-related macular degeneration, psoriasis, and herpes. It is used to treat malignant cancers, including head and neck, lung, bladder and skin. Advantages lessen the need for delicate surgery and lengthy recuperation and minimal formation of scar tissue and disfigurement. A side effect is the associated photosensitisation of skin tissue. Basics PDT applications involve three components: a photosensitizer, a light source and tissue oxygen. The wavelength of the light source needs to be appropriate for exciting the photosensitizer to produce radicals and/or reactive oxygen species. These are free radicals (Type I) generated through electron abstraction or transfer from a substrate molecule and highly reactive state of oxygen known as singlet oxygen ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Combinatorial Ablation And Immunotherapy
Combinatorial ablation and immunotherapy is an oncological treatment that combines various tumor-ablation techniques with immunotherapy treatment. Combining ablation therapy of tumors with immunotherapy enhances the immunostimulating response and has synergistic effects for curative metastatic cancer treatment. Various ablative techniques are utilized including cryoablation, radiofrequency ablation, laser ablation, photodynamic ablation, stereotactic radiation therapy, alpha-emitting radiation therapy, hyperthermia therapy, HIFU. Thus, combinatorial ablation of tumors and immunotherapy is a way of achieving an autologous, in-vivo tumor lysate vaccine and treating metastatic disease. Mechanism of action Take magnetic hyperthermia for example. By applying magnetic nanoparticle-mediated hyperthermia with a threshold of 43 °C in order not to damage surrounding normal tissues, a significant quantity of heat-shock proteins (HSP) is expressed within and around the tumor tissues, ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryoimmunotherapy
Cryoimmunotherapy, also referred to as cryoimmunology, is an oncological treatment for various cancers that combines cryoablation of tumor with immunotherapy treatment. In-vivo cryoablation of a tumor, alone, can induce an immunostimulatory, systemic anti-tumor response, resulting in a cancer vaccine—the abscopal effect. Thus, cryoablation of tumors is a way of achieving autologous, in-vivo tumor lysate vaccine and treat metastatic disease. However, cryoablation alone may produce an insufficient immune response, depending on various factors, such as high freeze rate. Combining cryotherapy with immunotherapy enhances the immunostimulating response and has synergistic effects for cancer treatment. Although, cryoblation and immunotherapy has been used successfully in oncological clinical practice for over 100 years, and can treat metastatic disease with curative intent, it has been ignored in modern practice. Only recently has cryoimmunotherapy been resurrected to become an establish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Levy
Julia Levy (born May 15, 1934) is a Canadian microbiologist, immunologist, educator and entrepreneur. Early life and education The daughter of Guillaume Albert and Dorothy Frances Coppens, she was born Julia Coppens in Singapore. In 1940, her father sent her mother and his two daughters from their home in Indonesia to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he joined them at the end of World War II after he was released from a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Her early education was in Canada. She studied immunology and bacteriology at the University of British Columbia, earning a BA in 1955. Levy received a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of London in 1958. In 1959, she returned to the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor, later becoming full professor. Career Her research led her and her colleagues to participate in the development of photodynamic therapy (PDT) initially for treating cancer but more significantly as the first medical treatment of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visudyne
Verteporfin (trade name Visudyne), a benzoporphyrin derivative, is a medication used as a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy to eliminate the abnormal blood vessels in the eye associated with conditions such as the wet form of macular degeneration. Verteporfin accumulates in these abnormal blood vessels and, when stimulated by nonthermal red light with a wavelength of 689 nm in the presence of oxygen, produces highly reactive short-lived singlet oxygen and other reactive oxygen radicals, resulting in local damage to the endothelium and blockage of the vessels.Verteporfin Verteporfin is also used off-label for the treatment of central serous retinopathy. Administration Verteporfin is usually injected intravenously into the largest arm vein. It is injected at a dose of 6 mg/m2 and light-activated. It is usually given 15 minutes before laser treatment. This dose can be repeated 4 times per year. Contraindications Porphyria : Patients with porphyria should not rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photofrin
Porfimer sodium, sold as Photofrin, is a photosensitizer used in photodynamic therapy and radiation therapy and for palliative treatment of obstructing endobronchial non-small cell lung carcinoma and obstructing esophageal cancer. Porfimer is a mixture of oligomers formed by ether and ester linkages of up to eight porphyrin units. In practice, a red light source emitting at 630 nm is used to excite the Porfimer oligomers. Porfimer is Haematoporphyrin Derivative (HpD) (See PDT). Approvals and indications It was approved in Canada in 1993 for the treatment of bladder cancer. It was approved in Japan in 1994 (for early stage lung cancer?). It was approved by the U.S. FDA in December 1995 for esophageal cancer, and in 1998, it was approved for the treatment of early non-small cell lung cancer. In August 2003 the FDA approved its use for Barrett's esophagus Barrett's esophagus is a condition in which there is an abnormal ( metaplastic) change in the mucosal cells that li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photosensitizer
Photosensitizers are light absorbers that alter the course of a photochemical reaction. They usually are catalysts. They can function by many mechanisms; sometimes they abstract an electron from the substrate, and sometimes they abstract a hydrogen atom from the substrate. At the end of this process, the photosensitizer returns to its ground state, where it remains chemically intact, poised to absorb more light. One branch of chemistry which frequently utilizes photosensitizers is polymer chemistry, using photosensitizers in reactions such as photopolymerization, photocrosslinking, and photodegradation. Photosensitizers are also used to generate prolonged excited electronic states in organic molecules with uses in photocatalysis, photon upconversion and photodynamic therapy. Generally, photosensitizers absorb electromagnetic radiation consisting of Infrared, infrared radiation, Light, visible light radiation, and Ultraviolet, ultraviolet radiation and transfer absorbed energy into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reactive Oxygen Species
In chemistry and biology, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive chemicals formed from diatomic oxygen (), water, and hydrogen peroxide. Some prominent ROS are hydroperoxide (H2O2), superoxide (O2−), hydroxyl radical (OH.), and singlet oxygen(1O2). ROS are pervasive because they are readily produced from O2, which is abundant. ROS are important in many ways, both beneficial and otherwise. ROS function as signals, that turn on and off biological functions. They are intermediates in the redox behavior of O2, which is central to fuel cells. ROS are central to the photodegradation of organic pollutants in the atmosphere. Most often however, ROS are discussed in a biological context, ranging from their effects on aging and their role in causing dangerous genetic mutations. Inventory of ROS ROS are not uniformly defined. All sources include superoxide, singlet oxygen, and hydroxyl radical. Hydrogen peroxide is not nearly as reactive as these s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monoclonal Antibody
A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies are identical and can thus have monovalent affinity, binding only to a particular epitope (the part of an antigen that is recognized by the antibody). In contrast, polyclonal antibodies are mixtures of antibodies derived from multiple plasma cell lineages which each bind to their particular target epitope. Artificial antibodies known as bispecific monoclonal antibodies can also be engineered which include two different antigen binding sites ( FABs) on the same antibody. It is possible to produce monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind to almost any suitable substance; they can then serve to detect or purify it. This capability has become an investigative tool in biochemistry, molecular biology, and medicine. Monoclonal antibod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porphyrins
Porphyrins ( ) are heterocyclic, macrocyclic, organic compounds, composed of four modified pyrrole subunits interconnected at their α carbon atoms via methine bridges (). In vertebrates, an essential member of the porphyrin group is heme, which is a component of hemoproteins, whose functions include carrying oxygen in the bloodstream. In plants, an essential porphyrin derivative is chlorophyll, which is involved in light harvesting and electron transfer in photosynthesis. The parent of porphyrins is porphine, a rare chemical compound of exclusively theoretical interest. Substituted porphines are called porphyrins. With a total of 26 π-electrons the porphyrin ring structure is a coordinated aromatic system. One result of the large conjugated system is that porphyrins absorb strongly in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. they are deeply colored. The name "porphyrin" derives . Structure Porphyrin complexes consist of a square planar MN4 core. The periph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phthalocyanine
Phthalocyanine () is a large, aromatic, macrocyclic, organic compound with the formula and is of theoretical or specialized interest in chemical dyes and photoelectricity. It is composed of four isoindole units linked by a ring of nitrogen atoms. = has a two-dimensional geometry and a ring system consisting of 18 π-electrons. The extensive delocalization of the π-electrons affords the molecule useful properties, lending itself to applications in dyes and pigments. Metal complexes derived from , the conjugate base of , are valuable in catalysis, organic solar cells, and photodynamic therapy. Properties Phthalocyanine and derived metal complexes (MPc) tend to aggregate and, thus, have low solubility in common solvents. Benzene at 40 °C dissolves less than a milligram of or CuPc per litre. and CuPc dissolve easily in sulfuric acid due to the protonation of the nitrogen atoms bridging the pyrrole rings. Many phthalocyanine compounds are, thermally, very s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
