Enhancement of Phthalocyanine Mediated Photodynamic Therapy by Catechin on Lung Cancer Cells

Worldwide, lung cancer remains one of the leading cancers with increasing mortality rates. Though chemotherapy for lung cancer is effective, it is always accompanied by unavoidable and grave side effects. Photodynamic therapy (PDT), using novel photosensitizers, is an advanced treatment method with relatively few side effects. Plant products are emerging as potent photosensitizers (PSs). The dose-dependent effect of Catechin (CA) (20-100 mu M) on cellular morphological changes, cell viability, cytotoxicity, proliferation, DNA damage and apoptosis were studied on A549 adenocarcinoma alveolar basal epithelial cells. The effect of CA, along with Zinc phthalocyanine PS at 680 nm and 5 J/cm(2) fluency was also studied. As the doses of CA increased, the results showed a pattern of increased cytotoxicity, accompanied by decreased cell viability and proliferation in A549 cells. Also, at 52 mu M (IC50), CA in combination with PS significantly increased the cytotoxicity, DNA damage, and apoptosis, as compared to control and PS alone, treated cells in PDT experiments. These findings leave a possible thread that CA can be used in the application of phyto-photodynamic therapy of cancer in future.