Combination of Photodynamic Therapy with Chemotherapy

Abstract

Chemotherapy is an anticancer and antimicrobial treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells such as cancer and microbial infections in the body. Basic research in chemotherapy involves prospecting of natural sources, chemical synthesis, structure modification and structure–activity studies, and enhancement of efficacy and selectivity, followed by preclinical studies, clinical trials and clinical case studies. Due to the escalation of multidrug resistance among pathogenic bacteria, the power of antibiotics, which had transformed medical sciences, has been diminishing, yielding to progressive alternative approaches, which have shown promising results in trials suggesting the roles of these alternatives as preventive or adjunct therapies in the future. Chemical modification of known effective drugs as one method to improve chemotherapy may be exemplified by the modification of melphalan to generate derivatives with improved cytotoxic activity in human cancer cells. Similarly, several chemical modifications of existing antibiotic drugs have the potential to generate new drug molecules against which there is no resistance currently. The development of resistance against drugs used in chemotherapy and the development of new drug molecules against which there is no resistance is a contest between science and disease which science is unlikely to win since the mutational development of resistance may be quicker than the current pace of drug development science. Antibacterial, antifungal, anthelminthic, antiprotozoal, and antiviral chemotherapy are recognized. Selectivity enhancement research could lead to disease cell- and tissue-specific modalities without side effects, and reduction or elimination of the emergence of resistance.