Theranostics and Image Guided Drug Delivery
CHAPTER 4: Photodynamic Therapy
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Published:02 Jan 2018
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Special Collection: 2018 ebook collectionSeries: Drug Discovery
Cormac Hally, Beatriz Rodríguez-Amigo, Roger Bresolí-Obach, Oriol Planas, Jaume Nos, Ester Boix-Garriga, Rubén Ruiz-González, Santi Nonell, 2018. "Photodynamic Therapy", Theranostics and Image Guided Drug Delivery, Maya Thanou
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Photodynamic therapy is a clinical technique for the treatment of cancers, microbial infections and other medical conditions by means of light-induced generation of reactive oxygen species using photosensitising drugs. The intrinsic fluorescence of many such drugs make them potential theranostic agents for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy. This chapter reviews the basic chemical and biological aspects of photodynamic therapy with an emphasis on its applications in theranostics. The roles of nanotechnology is highlighted, as well as emerging trends such as photoimmunotherapy, image-guided surgery and light- and singlet-oxygen dosimetry.