Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2016; 22(21): 5012-5022
Published online Jun 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i21.5012
CdSe/ZnS quantum dots induce photodynamic effects and cytotoxicity in pancreatic cancer cells
Si-Jia He, Jia Cao, Yong-Sheng Li, Jia-Chun Yang, Min Zhou, Chun-Ying Qu, Yi Zhang, Feng Shen, Ying Chen, Ming-Ming Li, Lei-Ming Xu
Si-Jia He, Jia Cao, Jia-Chun Yang, Min Zhou, Chun-Ying Qu, Yi Zhang, Feng Shen, Ying Chen, Ming-Ming Li, Lei-Ming Xu, Department of Gastroenterology, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200092, China
Si-Jia He, the Comprehensive Cancer Center and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Pancreatic Diseases, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 201620, China
Yong-Sheng Li, Department of General Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200092, China
Author contributions: He SJ and Cao J contributed equally to this study; He SJ, Cao J and Xu LM performed the majority of the experiments; He SJ drafted the manuscript; Cao J and Xu LM designed the study and supervised its implementation; Li YS, Yang JC, Zhou M, Li MM and Qu CY participated in the experiments; Zhang Y, Shen F and Chen Y analyzed the data; all authors made critical revisions and approved the final version to be published.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81472844 and No. 81301826; and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, No. 14ZZ114.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to this study. The abstract of this paper was presented at AGA Digestive Disease Week as a poster with interim findings, and was published in “Poster Abstracts” in Gastroenterology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016508515332121.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset are available from the corresponding author at leiming.xu@aliyun.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Lei-Ming Xu, Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 1665 Kongjiang Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai 200092, China. leiming.xu@aliyun.com
Telephone: +86-21-25078999 Fax: +86-21-25078999
Received: January 18, 2016
Peer-review started: January 19, 2016
First decision: February 18, 2016
Revised: March 4, 2016
Accepted: March 18, 2016
Article in press: March 18, 2016
Published online: June 7, 2016
Processing time: 132 Days and 18.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: This study showed that quantum dots (QDs) may be a potential photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy (PDT) to treat pancreatic cancer by inhibiting SW1990 cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis through reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. QD-PDT may induce apoptosis through ROS-, caspase-3-mediated apoptotic pathways, with upregulation of apoptosis signaling molecules such as Bax and downregulation of Bcl-2. These findings provide a new application for PDT in pancreatic cancer. However, more preclinical and clinical trials should be undertaken before further clinical application.