The potential of photodynamic therapy combined with hyperthermia using porphyrin-nanomaterial hybrids against the triple-negative breast cancer cell line

The efficiencies of (10,20-di(thiophene-2-yl)-5,15-diyl)dimorpholine and its zinc derivative as photodynamic therapy (PDT) agents are herein reported. The complexes were conjugated to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) which are known for their photothermal activity. The main goal of the study was to combine hyperthermic AuNPs with novel porphyrins to study the synergistic effect and the efficacy of both PDT and hyperthermic effects in vitro against triple-negative breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231). All the compounds were found to have fluorescence quantum yield values < 0.01 and moderately high singlet oxygen quantum yields due to heavy atom effects associated with the zinc atom and the external atom effect of the AuNPs. PDT against the MDA-MB-231 cell lines was investigated over a dose range of 5–200 µg/mL and hyperthermia activity at 50 µg/mL. The results demonstrated that upon conjugating the porphyrins with the gold nanoparticles, the cell viability significantly decreased.