Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – February 2024

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – February 2024 Photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) is a novel anticancer therapy where cytotoxic drug is attached into a photocage, which is cleaved by light to release the drug at the tumor site. A new study led by Prof. Sylvestre Bonnet’s group at Leiden University, demonstrated a significantly improved agent for photoactivated chemotherapy. ML6600 laser was used to study the drug release from the photocage, comparing efficacy between red and green light. It was shown that the agent could be effectively released Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – January 2024

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – January 2024 Phototherapy is widely established treatment for skin diseases like actinic keratosis, cutaneous infections, and skin tumors, resulting in excellent cosmetic outcomes. However, some clinically used light sensitizing drugs have drawbacks such as limited penetration depth and high painfulness to patient. In a new study by Andreea Burloiu and the teams at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, new photoactivated drugs were developed for treatment of skin diseases. ML6600 laser with MLAKIT was used to evaluate the effect Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – December 2023

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – December 2023 Organic compounds are one of the leading causes of water pollution. Rhodamine 6G is a commonly used dye in the food and textile industries and can cause cancer when consumed in contaminated water. To tackle this problem, Professor T. Nyokong’s team at Rhodes University studied photocatalysis with ML7710 for degrading rhodamine, and showed increased degradation efficiency when photocatalysis was combined with ultrasound (sonocatalysis). This Laser-Sharp study offers a new method for more efficient degradation of organic pollutants for environmental Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – November 2023

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – November 2023 The development of modern antibiotics is recognized as one of the major achievements of medicine and has saved millions of lives. However, many infectious agents have developed resistance to antibiotics over time, and defining new antibiotic targets has been difficult since very few genes are essential for pathogens. To combat this growing problem, Professor Timothy Haystead’s team at Duke University developed a novel light-based antimicrobial strategy that targets non-essential enzyme on the surface of bacteria. Light activation was Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – October 2023

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – October 2023 ​Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing healthcare problem, with new effective treatment strategies urgently needed. Professor Mitsunaga and team at The Jikei University Medical School, Japan, describe a promising treatment called photoimmuno-antimicrobial strategy (PIAS) in a new Nature publication. Detailed instructions how to design and implement the treatment are given, with Modulight’s ML7710 and ML6600 series lasers validated for drug activation in the protocol. This treatment enables targeted elimination of different microbes, regardless of the species or drug resistance Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – September 2023

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – September 2023 Head & neck cancer is world’s sixth most common cancer, with increasing incidence and poor survival. A new study by P. Enzian & R. Rahmanzadeh at University of Lübeck, studied combining chemotherapy with photochemical internalization for more effective H&N cancer treatment in vitro. Photochemical internalization using photosensitizer fimaporfin, activated with Modulight’s ML6600 laser, was shown to increase drug’s efficacy by means of better drug delivery inside the cells. As a result, tumor cell death was achieved using 20-fold Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – August 2023

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – August 2023 Interleukin 15 (IL-15) is promising candidate for cancer immunotherapy, since it is an inducer of differentiation and proliferation of killer T cells and NK cells. A new study by Fukushima et al. at NCI, published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, shows increase in therapeutic efficacy in vivo when IL15 was combined with photoimmunotherapy using ML7710 laser system. Intratumoral injection of IL-15 also boosted the immune responses against both the primary tumor as well as abscopal effect eradicating distant, untreated tumor.​ ​​ Read original publication Modulight Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – April 2023

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – April 2023 Metastases remain the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. To combat this problem, Ruben V. Huis in ‘t Veld et al. combined immune checkpoint inhibitors with a light-activated virus-drug conjugate in their preclinical study. As published in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy journal, the combination was effective against metastatic tumors and in most cases even resulted in complete responses to therapy. ​​ Read original publication   Modulight is very happy to be supporting this research. We would like to deliver our Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – February 2023

 Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – February 2023 The nomination for Laser-Sharp Research goes to Mäki-Mikola et al. at University of Helsinki for their development of a dynamic cell culturing platform for light-activation studies. The developed platform has a flow chamber connected to a peristaltic pump, which creates a flow that resembles the natural fluid flow at the cell surfaces. ML6500 laser was used to release calcein from liposomes to validate the suitability of the platform for light-triggered drug release. Compared to traditional static cell culture Continue reading →

Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – December 2022

   Modulight Spotlights: LASER-SHARP RESEARCH – December 2022 This month’s research spotlight goes to H. Wakiyama, H. Kobayashi, et al. at National Cancer Institute, USA. Their study, published in Cancer Immunology Research journal, looked into immunological mechanisms behind hyperprogressive disease. Immune checkpoint inhibitors, despite being a major success story in the field of cancer therapy, unfortunately lead to this rapid progression of cancer in some patients, for yet poorly understood reasons. To study this, the research team partially depleted cytotoxic T cells by photoimmunotherapy, using CD8-targeted Continue reading →