Tumour Thermometer
In Russia, molecular thermometers have been created to fight cancer
Hypersensitive molecular thermometers for medicine were created by a Russian-Finnish team of scientists with the participation of specialists from the National Research Technological University "MISIS" (NUST MISIS). According to the authors, the unique development will increase the accuracy and effectiveness of therapy for various tumors. The results are published in the journal Materials & Design (Kolesnikov et al., Water-soluble multimode fluorescent thermometers based on porphyrins photosensitizers).
Some promising methods of tumor treatment – for example, photodynamic and photothermal therapy – require accurate regular measurement of the temperature of living systems at the level of individual molecules, the scientists reported.
For example, in photodynamic therapy, a tumor is irradiated with a laser to activate a pre-administered drug, which leads to heating of the tumor tissue. However, to trigger a therapeutic response, the tumor can be heated to 42-45 degrees: with a further increase in temperature, protein folding and damage to neighboring healthy tissues will begin.
Theoretical calculations and existing thermometers, according to scientists, are very inconvenient and do not provide high measurement accuracy. Solving this problem, a team of specialists with the participation of NUST MISIS scientists synthesized substances that can work as ultra-precise thermometers at the molecular level.
"Molecular thermometers are a class of substances whose optical characteristics change with temperature. We synthesized two such substances and studied their luminescent properties. When heated, the spectrum of their emission and the "lifetime" of fluorescence changes – this is enough to record temperature changes with an accuracy of 0.1 degrees. The temperature reading takes place on the same equipment that is used to irradiate the injected drug," said Roman Akasov, an expert at the Biomedical Nanomaterials laboratory of NUST MISIS.
The synthesized substances belong to a well-studied class of water-soluble porphyrins and, according to the authors of the study, differ from other molecular thermometers in the simplicity of synthesis and modification.
After assessing the toxicity of the thermometers obtained, the scientists found that one of the compounds is quite toxic when irradiated with a laser. According to the authors, this combination will allow the substance to be used not only as a molecular thermometer, but also as a full-fledged photodynamic drug with built-in thermometry capable of fighting tumor cells.
The study was attended by scientists from St. Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg State University), the Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IFHE RAS), the Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IONH RAS), Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland), NUST MISIS, the First Moscow I. M. Sechenov State Medical University (Sechenov University), Volga State Technological University (PSTU). The work was carried out within the framework of the RNF project No. 19-13-00410.
The immediate task of scientists is a detailed study of the photophysical properties of the obtained porphyrins under prolonged irradiation during photodynamic therapy. The research team also plans to continue the search for new drugs of combined action.
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