Hypericin-assisted photodynamic therapy against anaplastic thyroid cancer

Background: Hypericin (HYP) extracted from St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) is a natural photosensitizer in clinical photodynamic therapy (PDT). PDT is one of the powerful methods for cancer treatments because of its excellent tumoritropic characteristics and photosensitizing properties. However, limited reports on the efficacy of PDT on anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) have been published. Especially HYP-associated PDT has not been investigated in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we evaluated the effect of HYP for PDT against FRO ATC cells. Methods: The activities of HYP-assisted PDT were investigated in ATC cells. The ATC FRO cells were treated with a combination of HYP dose and laser power. The viability of FRO cells was measured by MTT assay, and Trypan blue staining was performed to monitor cell death. Detection reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial membrane potential after HYP-assisted PDT were analyzed by confocal microscopy. For in vivo study, FRO cells were injected into nude mice. After intravenous injection of HYP, Laser was irradiated and nude mice were monitored in Day 4, 7, 14. Results and conclusions: The rate of FRO cell death was increased by applying HYP dose and laser power dependent. Moreover, HYP and laser irradiation induced FRO cell death was mediated by the intracellular ROS generation and mitochondrial damage. Finally, the HYP-assisted PDT eliminated FRO cell tumor from the mouse in vivo. These data demonstrate that HYP could be an effective photosensitizer for human ATC therapy.