Article from Petras Juzenas on "Top 25 Hottest Article" list from ScienceDirect
Every quarter of a year, ScienceDirect provides lists showing "Top 25 Hottest Articles" in 24 main subject areas. Among these areas is "Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science", which contains 309 journals.
In this category, an article first-authored by Petras Juzenas from the Department of Radiation Biology is on sixth place on this exclusive list from the last quarter of 2008. The article - entitled "Quantum dots and nanoparticles for photodynamic and radiation therapies of cancer" - was published in the well-reputed journal "Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews" (impact factor 8,2).
More than 2,500 journals and nine million full-text articles are available from ScienceDirect.
In this article Juzenas and coworkers provide complementary review on the use of quantum dots and nanoparticles for photodynamic and radiation therapies of cancer.
Despite of advantages, photodynamic therapy has not been yet widely accepted in clinical practice. Advances in radiotherapy have changed little for the last decades; its management has progressed mainly due to technological progress in dose delivery and imaging. Nanotechnology has during the last decade emerged with promising medicinal applications, and its use particularly in photosensitization and radiosensitization is currently of growing interest.
This article elaborates the underlying principles of radical generation and tumour eradication by quantum dots and nanoparticles under stimuli with electromagnetic radiation (visible light and ionizing radiation). A new concept of combination of photodynamic therapy with radiotherapy is described, where a photosensitizer conjugated to a nanoparticle is activated by ionizing radiation thus overcoming problem of light penetration. Such enhancement of radiosensitization is believed to have great potential for cancer therapy since it will reduce radiation doses and side-effects. Such potential has been so far demonstrated in few preliminary works by the authors and other investigators world-wide. The challenge is now to further support the concept on a laboratory bench and lead the technology into clinical practice.
Links:
Quantum dots and nanoparticles for photodynamic and radiation therapies of cancer.
Juzenas P, Chen W, Sun YP, Coelho MA, Generalov R, Generalova N, Christensen IL.
Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2008 Dec 14;60(15):1600-14. Epub 2008 Sep 20. Review.
Top 25 Hottest Articles from ScienceDirect:
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science, October - December 2008
Home page of Petras Juzenas project group "Quantum dots for photosensitization"