Virus-Derived Nanoparticles for Advanced Technologies: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology

Abstract

Cancer photodynamic therapy (PDT) involves the absorption of light by photosensitizers (PSs) to gener- ate cytotoxic singlet oxygen for killing cancer cells. The success of this method is usually limited by the lack of selective accumulation of the PS at cancer cells. Bioengineered viruses with cancer cell-targeting pep- tides fused on their surfaces are great drug carriers that can guide the PS to cancer cells for targeted cancer treatment. Here, we use cell-targeting fd bacteriophages (phages) as an example to describe how to chemi- cally conjugate PSs (e.g., pyropheophorbide-a (PPa)) onto a phage particle to achieve targeted PDT.