Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Nov 24, 2022; 13(11): 880-895
Published online Nov 24, 2022. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v13.i11.880
Folate receptor-targeted near-infrared photodynamic therapy for folate receptor-overexpressing tumors
Winn Aung, Atsushi B Tsuji, Kenjiro Hanaoka, Tatsuya Higashi
Winn Aung, Atsushi B Tsuji, Tatsuya Higashi, Department of Molecular Imaging and Theranostics, Institute for Quantum Medical Science, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Chiba 263-8555, Japan
Kenjiro Hanaoka, Faculty of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Keio University, Tokyo 105-8512, Japan
Author contributions: Aung W designed the study, conducted most of the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; Hanaoka K, designed, synthesized, and provided the folate-Si-rhodamine-1; Tsuji AB and Higashi T coordinated the research and contributed to manuscript preparation; all authors critically reviewed and approved the final version of the article.
Supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, No. 21K07740 (to Aung W).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of National Institute for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, No. 13-1022-9.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All relevant data were presented in the manuscript. Further information is available from the corresponding author.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Winn Aung, MBBS, PhD, Senior Researcher, Department of Molecular Imaging and Theranostics, Institute for Quantum Medical Science, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan. winn.aung@qst.go.jp
Received: August 3, 2022
Peer-review started: August 3, 2022
First decision: August 29, 2022
Revised: September 12, 2022
Accepted: October 18, 2022
Article in press: October 18, 2022
Published online: November 24, 2022
Processing time: 109 Days and 9.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a minimally invasive cancer therapy and photosensitizers (PS) with optimal properties are crucial for enhancing the efficacy of PDT. We evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of a folate receptor (FR)-targeted, near-infrared (NIR)-sensitive PS (FolateSiR-1). FolateSiR-1 showed FR specificity in vitro and in vivo and functions as a tumor-damaging PS by inducing necrosis, apoptosis, and cell growth inhibition upon activation with NIR light. Our findings suggest that FolateSiR-1 is effective in FR-targeted NIR-PDT with low side effects and has potential for presenting new and effective treatment options for FR-overexpressing tumors.