ENHANCEMENT OF IMMUNE SYSTEM CELL ACTIVITY DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF MICROCOMPONENTS WHEN EXPOSED TO PHOTODYNAMIC

The application of photodynamic therapy (PDT) has aimed at destroying cancer and control infections. Experimentation in vitro with individual elements of a biological system enables study of the mechanism of action and provides directions to in vivo applications where cancer coexists with normal cells and microorganisms, whether opportunistic or not. The action of the combined set of elements leads to a different behavior from each of the components isolated. In this study, we created a simple model to investigate the effects of PDT (1) on the coculture of macrophages (2) and melanoma cells (3) infected with E. coli (4) under different combinations. Applying the photodynamic effect to each component separately or to all of them together resulted in different outcomes. These in vitro experiments provide pathways to understand or to design new and more efficient applications of PDT.