Photodynamic Therapy Mediated by Liposomal Chloroaluminum-Phthalocyanine Induces Necrosis in Oral Cancer Cells

Photodynamic Therapy is an alternative therapeutic modality applied on treatment of malignant neoplasms in different anatomical sites, such as oral cavity. It requires the action of three components simultaneously: (i) photosensitizers, (ii) light and (iii) molecular oxygen. The interaction between these components promotes tumor destruction by two main mechanisms: direct cell harm, such as apoptosis and/or necrosis, and indirect effects like vasculature shutdown and induction of immune response against tumor tissue. In this context, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Photodynamic Therapy mediated by liposomal chloroaluminum-phthalocyanine in different oral cancer cell lines (OSCC and HSG), and in OSCC-induced tumors in nude mice. The results showed that PDT induces a significant cellular death in vitro, and the in vivo results resulted in the induction tumor death mainly by necrosis, with the disruption of tumor blood vessels. We concluded that PDT mediated by liposomal chloroaluminum-phthalocyanine is an effective protocol to induce destruction of oral cancer cell cultures-OSCC and HSG and the death was predominantly necrosis in both in vitro and in vivo experiments.