Frontiers in Chemistry (Sep 2020)

Photodynamic Therapy of Cancers With Internal Light Sources: Chemiluminescence, Bioluminescence, and Cerenkov Radiation

  • Yintang Zhang,
  • Yuanqiang Hao,
  • Shu Chen,
  • Maotian Xu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2020.00770
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising and minimally invasive modality for the treatment of cancers. The use of a self-illuminating system as a light source provides an intriguing solution to the light penetration issues of conventional PDT, which have gained considerable research interest in the past few years. This mini review aimed to present an overview of self-illuminating PDT systems by using internal light sources (chemiluminescence, bioluminescence, and Cerenkov radiation) and to give a brief discussion on the current challenges and future perspectives.

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