Photodynamic therapy effect of zinc monoamino phthalocyanine–folic acid conjugate adsorbed on single walled carbon nanotubes on melanoma cells

This work reports on the photodynamic therapy effect of zinc monoamino phthalocyanine linked to folic acid represented as ZnMAPc-FA, which was further immobilized onto single walled carbon nanotube represented as ZnMAPc-FA-SWCNT on melanoma A375 cell line, the effect of SWCNT-FA (without ZnMAPc) was also examined. All the compounds were non-toxic to the melanoma A375 cell line in the absence of light. Upon irradiation of the melanoma A375 cell line with a 676 nm diode laser at a power density of 98 mW/cm2 at 5 J/cm2 about 60% and 63% cell death was observed in the presence of ZnMAPc-FA and ZnMAPc-FA-SWCNT respectively. SWCNT-FA had no significant photodynamic therapy or photothermal effect to the cell, only 23% of cell death was observed after irradiation