Breakthrough in Photodynamic Therapy Beijing Institute of Technology Develops Miniaturized Device

TapTechNews July 6th news, Photodynamic therapy is a two-stage therapy. By irradiating therapeutic light such as ultraviolet or infrared rays, photosensitizing drugs act on human tissues, and after light activation, it can destroy cancer cells and pre-cancerous cells, showing remarkable curative effect on many skin diseases.

However, the current photodynamic therapy mainly injects photosensitizing drugs into the human body through intravenous injection, and then directly irradiates the skin surface with therapeutic light. In this regard, researchers from Beijing Institute of Technology innovated their thinking and proposed a new treatment technology that can control the action range of therapeutic light and photosensitizing drugs within the lesion area, thereby avoiding side effects on healthy tissues in other areas.

According to the introduction, relevant results have been published in the international academic journal npj - Flexible Electronics (TapTechNews attached DOI: 10.1038/s41528-024-00317-z).

Beijing Institute of Technology said that the research team spent several years and successfully developed a miniaturized integrated photodynamic therapy device weighing only 3.6 grams, which can achieve efficient photodynamic therapy for skin diseases such as port-wine stains.

Zhao Huiting, a Ph.D. student of BIT, introduced, The team first developed a bifunctional microneedle, which is composed of a soluble tip and a transparent needle body. After the microneedle penetrates the skin, the soluble tip will release the encapsulated drug to the lesion area, and the transparent needle body can guide the therapeutic light into the lesion area.

For this miniaturized integrated photodynamic therapy device, Hu Xiaoming, an associate professor at the School of Medical Technology of BIT, said, This device has a volume of only 4 cubic centimeters and a weight of only 3.6 grams, which can be directly attached to the skin surface to achieve accurate light and drug delivery and avoid damaging healthy tissues.

Wei Zewen, a research fellow at the School of Medical Technology of BIT, also emphasized, More importantly, in the future we will continue to conduct in-depth research and hope to use this device to achieve photodynamic therapy as simple and effective as a 'Band-Aid'.