Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Abstract

Photodynamic Therapy Based on Arrabidaea chica (Crajiru) Extract Nanoemulsion: In vitro Activity against Monolayers and Spheroids of Human Mammary Adenocarcinoma MCF-7 Cells

Mosar C Rodrigues, Luis A Muehlmann, João PF Longo, Renata C Silva, Ilmar B Graebner, Igor A Degterev, Carolina M Lucci, Ricardo B Azevedo and Mônica P Garcia

Natural products have been sources of numerous drugs over the history. However, little is known about the therapeutic potential of Amazon forest species. This work aimed at testing the potential of the hydrophobic extract of Arrabidaea chica (ACE), an Amazon plant, as a source of photosensitizers for anticancer photodynamic therapy. ACE was tested as a nanoemulsion (ACE-NE) produced by phase inversion temperature. It was found that ACE-NE intensely absorbs red light and, under photoactivation (λ 660 nm, 4.5 J/cm²), produces reactive oxygen species. Photoactivated ACE-NE presented, in vitro, a CC₅₀ of 1.3 μg ACE/mL against human breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells, and was effective in lysing MCF-7 spheroids. In the dark, ACE was toxic neither to human mammary epithelial MCF-10A cells nor to MCF-7 cells. On that ground, this work is the first to show that A. chica is a source of photosensitizers potentially useful for anticancer photodynamic therapy.