Plasmonics-Enhanced Two-Photon Phototherapy for Deep Tumor Treatment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for cell proliferation disorders, such as cancer, face challenges in differentiating between normal and target cells, often resulting in damage to healthy tissues and requiring invasive procedures or ex vivo methods, which are limited in depth penetration and specificity.
Innovation Solution
The method employs plasmonics materials and energy sources like X-rays, gamma rays, or microwaves to activate photoactivatable agents through two-photon absorption, using energy modulation agents to enhance or modify the initiation energy for precise cellular changes in situ, avoiding extensive singlet oxygen production and enabling non-invasive treatment of deep-seated tumors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional treatments (chemotherapy, radiation therapy) are used to treat cell proliferation disorders, then the treatment can reach deep-seated tumors, but healthy cells are damaged due to inability to differentiate between normal and target cells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making the treatment agent (photosensitizer) selectively accumulate in target cells through specific binding mechanisms (e.g., antibody-antigen, receptor-ligand interactions). This ensures that only the diseased cells receive the therapeutic effect when activated by light, while healthy cells remain unaffected. The selective localization of the photosensitizer to target cells creates a spatially differentiated treatment effect.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses light as an intermediary agent to activate the photosensitizer only in the presence of target cells. The light acts as a selective trigger that converts the inactive photosensitizer into an active therapeutic agent locally. This intermediary mechanism allows precise spatial and temporal control of the treatment, activating therapy only where needed and when needed, thereby protecting healthy tissues.
2Reliability
If photodynamic therapy with singlet oxygen production is used, then target cells can be treated, but the treatment lacks depth penetration capability and requires invasive procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the light activation step from the deep tissue environment and performs it externally. By using photosensitizers that can be activated by light sources applied from outside the body (or minimally invasive delivery), the treatment achieves deep penetration without requiring invasive procedures. The photosensitizer is administered systemically and accumulates in target cells, then activated by external light sources that can penetrate to the required depth.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs parameter changes by selecting photosensitizers with specific absorption characteristics that match available light sources for deep tissue penetration. By changing the optical parameters (wavelength, intensity) of the activation light and matching them with photosensitizer absorption profiles, the treatment achieves both deep penetration and selective activation. The use of near-infrared light or other wavelengths with deep tissue penetration capability resolves the depth limitation.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If ex vivo treatment methods are used to achieve specificity, then healthy cells are protected, but the treatment process becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies self-service by designing photosensitizers that autonomously seek out and bind to target cells through their inherent biological recognition mechanisms (e.g., antibody-antigen binding, receptor-ligand interactions). The treatment agent self-targets the diseased cells without requiring external intervention or complex separation procedures. This autonomous targeting simplifies the treatment protocol to mere administration followed by light activation, eliminating the need for complex ex vivo processing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for high selectivity and minimal side effects, enabling effective treatment of cell proliferation disorders, including solid tumors, by inducing apoptosis and generating an autovaccine effect without significant damage to healthy cells, thus overcoming the limitations of existing treatments.
Implementation Method 1
The method employs plasmonics materials and energy sources like X-rays, gamma rays, or microwaves to activate photoactivatable agents through two-photon absorption
Implementation Method 2
The method employs plasmonics materials and energy sources like X-rays, gamma rays, or microwaves to activate photoactivatable agents
Implementation Method 3
using energy modulation agents to enhance or modify the initiation energy for precise cellular changes in situ
Implementation Method 4
enabling effective treatment of cell proliferation disorders, including solid tumors, by inducing apoptosis
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to methods for treating cell proliferation disorders comprising:(1) administering to the subject at least one activatable pharmaceutical agent that is capable of activation by a simultaneous two photon absorption event and of effecting a predetermined cellular change when activated;(2) administering at least one plasmonics-active agent to the subject, and(3) applying an initiation energy from an initiation energy source to the subject,wherein the plasmonics-active agent enhances or modifies the applied initiation energy, such that the enhanced or modified initiation energy activates the activatable pharmaceutical agent by the simultaneous two photon absorption event in situ, thus causing the predetermined cellular change to occur, wherein said predetermined cellular change treats the cell proliferation related disorder; and the use of plasmonics enhanced photospectral therapy (PEPST) and exiton-plasmon enhanced phototherapy (EPEP) in the treatment of various cell proliferation disorders, and the PEPST and EPEP agents and probes; a kit and a computer implemented system for performing the method; a pharmaceutical composition useful in the method; and a method for causing an autovaccine effect in a subject using the method.