Methylene blue in anticancer photodynamic therapy: systematic review of preclinical studies

Amir Taldaev; Roman Terekhov; Ilya Nikitin; Elizaveta Melnik; Vera Kuzina; Mikhail Klochko; Igor Reshetov; Artem Shiryaev; Victor Loschenov; Galina Ramenskaya

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1264961

Methylene blue in anticancer photodynamic therapy: systematic review of preclinical studies

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Sep 28:14:1264961. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1264961. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Nanobiotechnology, Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, Moscow, Russia.
² Phystech School of Biological and Medical Physics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), Dolgoprudny, Russia.
³ Nelyubin Institute of Pharmacy, I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), Moscow, Russia.
⁴ Department of Oncology, Radiotherapy and Reconstructive Surgery, University Clinical Hospital No. 1, Levshin Institute of Cluster Oncology, I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), Moscow, Russia.
⁵ Department of Laser Micro-Nano and Biotechnology, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

Background: Methylene blue has a long history of clinical application. Thanks to phenothiazine chromophore, it has potential in photodynamic anticancer therapy. In spite of the growing body of literature that has evaluated the action of this dye on different types of cancer, the systematic understanding of this problem is still lacking. Therefore, this systematic review was performed to study the efficacy of methylene blue in photodynamic anticancer therapy. Methods: This systematic review was carried out in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, and the study protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022368738). Articles for the systematic review were identified through the PubMed database. SYRCLE's risk of bias tool was used to assess the studies. The results of systematic analysis are presented as narrative synthesis. Results: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria and these full texts were reviewed. In the selected articles, the dosage of dye infusion ranged from 0.04 to 24.12 mg/kg. The effectiveness of photodynamic therapy with methylene blue against different types of cancer was confirmed by a decrease in tumor sizes in seven articles. Conclusion: The results of the systematic review support the suggestions that photodynamic therapy with methylene blue helps against different types of cancer, including colorectal tumor, carcinoma, and melanoma. In cases of nanopharmaceutics use, a considerable increase of anticancer therapy effectiveness was observed. The further research into methylene blue in photodynamic anticancer therapy is needed. Systematic Review Registration: (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=368738), identifier (CRD42022368738).

Keywords: cancer; methylene blue; nanopharmaceutics; photodynamic therapy; systematic review; tumor.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation within the framework of state support for the creation and development of World-Class Research Centers “Digital Biodesign and Personalized Healthcare” (No. 075-15-2022-305).