Browsing by Author "Popovic, Ana"

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    Investigating the by-stander effect of Hypericin induced photodynamic therapy on human skin cells
    (2014) Popovic, Ana; Davids, Lester M
    Skin cancer is the most common cancer worldwide, and its incidence rate in South Africa is increasing. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been shown to be an effective treatment modality, through topical administration, for treatment of non-melanoma skin cancers. Our group investigates hypericin-induced PDT (HYP-PDT) for the treatment of both non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancers. However, a prerequisite for effective cancer treatments is efficient and selective targeting of the tumoral cells with minimal collateral damage to the surrounding normal cells, as it is well know that cancer therapies have bystander effects on normal cells in the body, often causing undesirable side effects. PDT can induce a bystander effect, defined as indirect damaged induced into adjacent cells either via intercellular gap junctions or via diffusible ROS released in the microenvironment. It is therefore important to know the effects of HYP-PDT on the normal cell population surrounding the non-melanoma skin cancer or melanoma tumor. The aim of this project was to investigate the cellular and molecular effects of HYP-PDT on normal primary human keratinocytes (Kc), melanocytes (Mc) and fibroblasts (Fb) in an in vitro tissue culture model thus representing both the epidermal and dermal cellular compartments of human skin.