Chemotherapy drugs can be lifesaving; however, they don’t work for every patient. Also, the past few years have seen a significant increase in chemotherapy-resistant cancer cases. Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that using two-photon photodynamic therapy to target certain proteins that are differentially expressed in drug-resistant cancer cells can be a promising therapeutic option. Drug-resistant breast and pancreatic cancer tissues were found to have low expression of certain key proteins, such as carboxylesterase-2 .
Tissues injected with a photosensitive compound fluoresced differently under the two-photon light depending upon the level of carboxylesterase-2. This helped identify drug-resistant cancer cells. Excitation of the compound by a two-photon laser induced cytotoxicity in the drug-resistant cancer cells, thereby killing them. Unlike most cancer…
