Photodynamic Therapy in the Operating Room
Breakthroughs in Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) occur everyday. On Tuesday, it was announced that a new non-surgical PDT-based procedure for the treatment of HPV and cervical pre-cancerous lesions has been accepted for use in a phase 2 trial by the FDA. Advancements like this help validate the need to continue exploring PDT as a potential treatment for cancer. Testing of this procedure is scheduled to begin this spring, and will occur in multiple trial centers across the US and Europe.
Unlike previous PDT applications in cancer, this is a new therapeutic treatment that uses advanced LED technology in a self-powered, single-use device that can be deployed inside a body cavity. This disposable device will be administered by a gynecologist or colposcopist and left in place for up to 24 hours. During this time, the patient can leave the hospital and continue her daily activities before eventually removing the device on her own. Read more »
The key features of aPDT can be summarized as follows [1]:
- Broad spectrum of action, since one photosensitizer can act on bacteria, fungi, yeasts and parasitic protozoa
- Efficacy independent of the resistance pattern of the given microbe
- Extensive reduction of pathogen counts in minutes, without damaging host cells
- No selection of resistant strains after multiple treatments
- Readily available, non-toxic photosensitizers
- Relatively low-cost light sources for activation of the photosensitizing agent
- No cytotoxic effects on key sensitive host cells such as human keratinocytes or fibroblasts
The treatment of topical infections has traditionally relied upon antibiotics in either topical or systemic dosage forms. However, the inexorable increase in antibiotic resistance (including to vancomycin and other glycopeptides) has led to the spectre of potentially untreatable infections, and this in turn has led to the development of alternative antimicrobial approaches based on light-activated chemotherapy 2, 3. Photodynamic Disinfection (called antimicrobial PDT by the scientific community) is an extension to traditional photodynamic therapy (PDT) which was originally focused on oncotherapy and intra-ocular indications, utilizing systemically-administered photosensitizers. Read more »
Tags: antibiotics, antimicrobial PDT, antimicrobial photod, aPDT, light-activated chemotherapy, microbes, PDT, Photodisinfection, photodynamic disinfection, photodynamic therapy, Photodynamics, photosensitizer, topical infections
Ondine Biomedical Inc, Photodisinfection
“There are two kinds of light — the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.”
James Thurber was almost certainly unaware of photodynamic medicine when he authored that quote in 1963, or else he might have added a 3
rd type of light – the glimmer that heals. Loosely put, the word photodynamic means using light to cause an action or effect. This definition, though simple, succinctly summarizes the concept of photodynamic medicine – a set of therapies that leverages visible light to create a targeted, potent effect.
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Humans are multicellular creatures each comprised of trillions of cells. Oddly enough, bacteria in our bodies outnumber our human cells by 10:1, although their size is, on average, about one tenth of a human cell. When seen in this light, humans really are part human and part bacteria. We are dependent on the maintenance of a delicate balance between human cells and bacterial cells for good health as we coexist with bacteria in a symbiotic relationship. There are estimated to be between 500-1,000 species of bacteria living in the human gut and skin. Some of our bacteria are known to perform certain tasks that are critical. Without our bacteria, for instance, we would be unable to digest and process our food intake. These commensal bacteria are widely known as our “flora”. Too many of any one kind of bacteria, and we are left in poor health. Bacteria, therefore, play a very important role in human health and human disease. Read more »
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