{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T23:11:12Z","timestamp":1790809872894,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,10]],"date-time":"2021-09-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1631232000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa","award":["98337"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["98337"]}]},{"name":"National Research Foundation Thuthuka Fund","award":["TTK180409318735"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TTK180409318735"]}]},{"name":"Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) Research Funding Grant","award":["xxxx"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["xxxx"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an aggressive cancer that remains a challenge to diagnose and treat. Photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) and therapy (PDT) are novel alternative techniques, which can enhance early diagnosis, as well as elicit tumor cell death. This is accomplished through photosensitizer (PS) mediated fluorescence and cytotoxic reactive oxygen species activation upon laser light irradiation excitation at specific low and high range wavelengths, respectively. However, the lack of PS target tumor tissue specificity often hampers these techniques. This study successfully fabricated a bioactive nanoconjugate, ZnPcS4-AuNP-S-PEG5000-NH2-Anti-GCC mAb (BNC), based upon a polyethylene glycol-gold nanoparticle, which was multi-functionalized with a fluorescent PDT metalated zinc phthalocyanine PS, and specific anti-GCC targeting antibodies, to overcome CRC PDD and PDT challenges. The BNC was found to be stable and showed selectively improved subcellular accumulation within targeted CRC for improved PDD and PDT outcomes in comparison to healthy in vitro cultured cells. Additionally, the BNC reported significantly higher late apoptotic PDT-induced CRC cell death rates (34% ***) when compared to PDT PS administration alone (15% *). These results indicated that the improved PDD and PDT outcomes were due to the specific PS accumulation in CRC cells through nanoparticle carriage and bioactive anti-GCC targeting.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms22189779","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,10]],"date-time":"2021-09-10T10:31:34Z","timestamp":1631269894000},"page":"9779","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":35,"title":["Targeted Nanoparticle Photodynamic Diagnosis and Therapy of Colorectal Cancer"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3368-7147","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nokuphila Winifred Nompumelelo","family":"Simelane","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laser Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 17011, Doornfontein 2028, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4556-9132","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cherie Ann","family":"Kruger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laser Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 17011, Doornfontein 2028, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5002-827X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Heidi","family":"Abrahamse","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laser Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 17011, Doornfontein 2028, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"M\u00e1rmol, I., S\u00e1nchez-de-Diego, C., Pradilla Dieste, A., Cerrada, E., and Rodriguez Yoldi, M.J. (2017). Colorectal Carcinoma: A General Overview and Future Perspectives in Colorectal Cancer. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms18010197"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"422","DOI":"10.4251\/wjgo.v7.i12.422","article-title":"Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis: Pitfalls and Opportunities","volume":"7","author":"Vega","year":"2015","journal-title":"World J. Gastrointest. Oncol."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Naidoo, C., Kruger, C.A., and Abrahamse, H. (2019). Simultaneous Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Treatment of Metastatic Melanoma. 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