Magnetic Dextran Nanoparticles That Bear Hydrophilic Porphyrin Derivatives: Bimodal Agents for Potential Application in Photodynamic Therapy

International audienceThis paper reports the chemical synthesis of a class of dextran superparamagnetic nanoparticles bearing hydrophilic porphyrin units covalently grafted by a click chemistry reaction in aqueous solution. Magnetic nanoparticles are known to be used in MRI and hyperthermia and the grafting of hydrophilic photosensitizers (PS) leads to elaborate new multifunctional platforms for potential diagnostic and targeted photodynamic therapy (PDT). The therapeutic potential for PDT of these nanoparticles has been evaluated in vitro against HaCaT cell line. The results show that these new multicharged nanomagnets – more especially those bearing cationic porphyrins - show a significatif uptake and an interesting photocytotoxic activity on HaCaT cells. The whole series of these synthesized PS are massively incorporated inside HaCat cells and associated with mitochondri