Progress and recent trends in photodynamic therapy with nanoparticles

Background Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an emerging treatment option for various therapeutic areas owing to its outstanding advantages compared with conventional therapies. PDT consists of three main components; a photosensitizer, a proper wavelength of light and oxygen. This alternative treatment is based on the selective accumulation of photosensitizers which generate reactive oxygen species to induce cell apoptosis and necrosis under the light irradiation. PDT provides less invasive way with high therapeutic efficacy and reduced side effects. When PDT is combined with nanoplatform, drug loading efficacy, tissue targeting efficiency and accumulation rate were enhanced leading to increase the therapeutic effect of PDT. Area covered In this review, we described progress and recent trends in nanoplatform-based PDT in various cancers and infectious diseases. We have selected lung cancer, liver cancer, and breast cancer for representative cancer types furthermore, bacteria-infected wound and acne vulgaris for typical infectious diseases. The above therapeutic areas were chosen since the researches on PDT with nanoparticles are actively ongoing with these indications. PDT as well as PDT with chemotherapy, and PDT with immunotherapy strategies were covered in this review. Expert opinion Nanotechnology combined with PDT greatly improved the therapeutic efficacy compared with PDT alone. In addition, novel combination strategies effectively enhanced the therapeutic outcomes with reduced side effects. However, more safety data will be needed to lead these innovative strategies to the clinical trials.