Development and characterization of indocyanine green nanocapsules for application in nanomedicine associated to photodynamic therapy

Abstract

The development of nanostructured systems to carry drugs have been shown as an important tool to solve problems associated to the increasing antibiotic resistance that microorganisms have developed. The advantage of using nanocarriered systems is based on the increasing permeability and retention effect of the drug on the target tissue. For that reason, particular attention has been given to multifunctional nanomaterials and/or theranostics. Recently, that is a great interest in combining nanomaterials and photodynamic therapy, a technique based on the interaction of light with a photoactive substance to induce oxidative damage to cells, which is an attractive alternative for the treatment of several diseases. In this scenario, this project aims the development of indocyanine green nanocapsules and its application in photodynamic therapy. The photosensitizer indocyanine green will be encapsulated with polymers of poly lactic acid (PLA) or poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), followed by conjugation with proteins to achieve selective liberation. The nanocapsules will be characterized by spectroscopy and microscopy techniques and the kinetics determined. In order to ensure the application in therapy, toxicity tests of nano-indocyanine green in mammalian cells culture in vitro will be assessed. To evaluate encapsulation specificity and efficiency, in vitro tests by incubating nano-indocyanine green in Streptococcus pneumoniae culture for following photodynamic therapy will be performed. It is expected that the combination of nanocapsule and photodynamic therapy enhances significantly the treatment efficacy and the bioavailability on the biological system due to an increase in permeability and the retention effect that nanomaterials own.