Evaluation of Antitumor and Antimicrobial Photobiological Activity of Nanocarrier Containing Photosensitizer and Magnetic Nanoparticle

Nanotechnology combined with photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been explored to enhance antitumor and antimicrobial photobiological activity. Aluminum phthalocyanine chloride (Al-Pc-Cl), with or without magnetic nanoparticles (MagNPs), was incorporated into polymeric nanoparticles (PNPs) to improve the PDT for treating tumors and infectious diseases. Three batches of the nanoparticles (MagNPs, PNPs-PS and PNPs-PS-MagNPs) were developed and characterized in terms of size, PdI, morphology by TEM, release study, and antitumor (against A549 cells) and antimicrobial (against MRSA and <i>C. albicans</i>) photobiological activity. The developed nanoparticles were nanometric in size, with MagNPs, PNPs-PS, and PNPs-PS-MagNPs showing 33.6, 186.9, and 333.5 nm, respectively, maintained the magnetic properties (for MagNPs and PNPs-PS-MagNPs), and provided slow and sustained release of the photosensitizer. PNPs-PS and PNPs-PS-MagNPs showed excellent antitumor photobiological activity with cell viabilities of 42 and 34%, respectively, and were not cytotoxic in the dark, with cell viabilities above 70%. PNPs-PS showed strong antibacterial activity against MRSA with an IC₅₀ of 8.26 μg/mL, which was lower to free Al-Pc-Cl with an IC₅₀ of 14.22 μg/mL after I radiation. The results of the antifungal photobiological activity against <i>C. albicans</i> were excellent, with IC₅₀ values of 3.75 and 3.5 μg/mL for PNPs-PS and PNPs-PS-MagNPs, respectively, values which were significantly lower with <i>p</i> < 0.05 than free PS (IC₅₀ > 30 μg/mL) after irradiation with light and fluconazole (IC₅₀ > 30 μg/mL), the reference antifungal agent. PNPs-PS showed promising results regarding antitumor, antibacterial, and antifungal photobiological activity. However, PNPs-PS-MagNPs showed weak results for antibacterial photobiological activity against MRSA but with promising results for tumor cells and <i>C. albicans</i>.