Hypericin‐based fluorescence diagnosis of bladder carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To determine the use of hypericin instillation for the fluorescent detection of papillary bladder cancer and carcinoma in situ. Patients and methods Eighty-seven patients with papillary bladder cancer and/or carcinoma in situ received instillations with 40 mL of an 8 mmol/L hypericin solution for at least 2 h. Fluorescent excitation with blue light was effective for up to 16 h, and biopsies were examined by fluorescence microscopy. Results There were no side-effects reported, no photobleaching and all papillary lesions fluoresced red. The sensitivity and specificity for detecting carcinoma in situ was 94% and 95%, respectively. An interval of 4 months is recommended after BCG instillations before using this test. Fluorescence microscopy showed that hypericin was selectively localized in the epithelium. Conclusions Hypericin-induced fluorescence has a high sensitivity and specificity for detecting bladder cancer. After 4 months there are few false-positive results in patients treated with BCG.

Enhancing the photodynamic effect of hypericin in human bladder transitional cell carcinoma spheroids by the use of the oxygen carrier, perfluorodecalin

“…As we reported previously, hypericin becomes concentrated specifically in bladder urothelial carcinoma lesions after instillation in humans (8,9). Due to this specific localization of hypericin in urothelial carcinoma lesions, the compound is used nowadays as a clinical diagnostic tool for the detection of superficial bladder tumors.…”

“…Hypericin is insoluble in water and plasma proteins were used as an effective hypericin carrier for incubation with multicellular tumor spheroids. For this purpose, the stock solution was diluted in an aqueous buffer containing plasma proteins, as reported previously (8,9).…”

“…Hypericin, a hydroxylated phenanthroperylenequinone that is present in a number of plants of the genus Hypericum, becomes concentrated specifically in bladder urothelial carcinoma lesions after instillation in humans, and the compound is now used as a clinical diagnostic tool for the detection of superficial bladder tumors (8,9). However, hypericin is also a photosensitizer with a potent photocytotoxic activity, indicating that hypericin could be used to treat bladder tumors photodynamically.…”

Molecular effectors and modulators of hypericin-mediated cell death in bladder cancer cells

“…We recently found that hypericin localizes in the neoplastic urothelium with higher specificity and selectivity to that displayed by aminolaevulinic acid, a precursor of the endogenous sensitizer protoporphyrin IX (D'Hallewin et al, 2002). Thus, besides its exploitation for accurate fluorescent detection of these malignancies, hypericin may become the photosensitizer of choice for PDT of bladder cancer.…”

Differentiation of Mueller-matrix invariants of biological tissues fibrillar networks with different phase and amplitude anisotropy

“…In this work, we have limited ourselves by consideration of a spectral-selective case -luminescence of optically active porphyrins in biological tissues in red (λ f = 0.63…0.65 μm) region of spectrum [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The excitation of autofluorescence was realized using a blue solid-state laser with the wavelength λ = 0.405 μm that coincides with the porphyrins maximum absorption.…”