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. 2016 May 25;7(6):2400-6.
doi: 10.1364/BOE.7.002400. eCollection 2016 Jun 1.

Fluorescence properties of several chemotherapy drugs: doxorubicin, paclitaxel and bleomycin

Najme Sadat Hosseini Motlagh  1 , Parviz Parvin  1 , Fatemah Ghasemi  1 , Fatemeh Atyabi  2
Affiliations

Fluorescence properties of several chemotherapy drugs: doxorubicin, paclitaxel and bleomycin

Najme Sadat Hosseini Motlagh et al. Biomed Opt Express. .

Abstract

Several chemo-drugs act as the biocompatible fluorophores. Here, the laser induced fluorescence (LIF) properties of doxorubicin, paclitaxel and bleomycin are investigated. The absorption lines mostly lie over UV range according to the UV-VIS spectra. Therefore, a single XeCl laser provokes the desired transitions of the chemo-drugs of interest at 308 nm. It is shown that LIF spectra are strongly dependent on the fluorophore concentration giving rise to the sensible red shift. This happens when large overlapping area appears between absorption and emission spectra accordingly. The red shift is taken into account as a characteristic parameter of a certain chemo-drug. The fluorescence extinction (α) and self-quenching (k) coefficients are determined based on the best fitting of the adopted Lambert-Beer equation over experimental data. The quantum yield of each chemo-drug is also measured using the linearity of the absorption and emission rates.

Keywords: (000.1430) Biology and medicine; (170.0170) Medical optics and biotechnology; (170.4580) Optical diagnostics for medicine; (300.1030) Absorption; (300.2140) Emission; (300.2530) Fluorescence, laser-induced.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The peak intensity in terms of concentration for (a) DOX, (c) Paclitaxel and (e) Bleomycin and corresponding UV-VIS spectra of the chemo-drugs as an inset. Laser induced fluorescence emission spectra due to various concentrations (0.001-3 mg/ml) for (b) DOX, (d) Paclitaxel and (f) Bleomycin. Whole data are obtained using the excitation by XeCl laser at 308 nm. In fact, Cp as a lucid characteristic parameter of chemo-drugs is inversely correlated with the extinction coefficient.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Overlapping area between absorption-emission spectra for (b) DOX (d) Paclitaxel and (f) Bleomycin after XeCl laser shots at 308 nm. Spectral shift versus drug concentration for (a) DOX (c) Paclitaxel and (e) Bleomycin and corresponding FWHM of spectral overlap area as a function of concentration as an inset. The spectral shifts attest that the reabsorption events accompany the agglomeration of fluorophore molecules at higher concentration. Stern-Volmer equation is usually used to determine the thresholds of agglomeration from monomer to dimmer, while it fails to explain the quenching effects when both reabsorption and agglomeration are available. Please note that Cc indicates the concentration of chemo-drugs.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
(a) Corresponding peak intensity of Rd6G as a function of concentration, inset: Laser induced fluorescence spectra at various concentration, (b) Spectral shift in terms of Rd6G concentration, inset: overlapping area of the normalized absorption-emission spectra. The FWHM of absorption spectra is invariant while that of emission spectra gradually decreases as a function of the concentration emphasizing the commonalities between of DOX and Rd6G.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
(a) quantum yields of chemo-Drugs of interest as well as those of a standard dye(Rd6G) and a typical biomaterial fluorophore Cy3, (b) Cp and α, (c) spectral shift and (d) Relative LIF intensity at Cp . Inset of Fig. 4(a): The linearity of fluorescence/ absorption rate such that the slopes lead to assess the quantum yields accordingly. Note: PAC: Paclitaxel and BLEO: Bleomycin and DOX: doxorubicin.
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