Light-activated hypericin induces cellular destruction of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

Hypericin from Hypericum perforatum plants shows an important promise in the photodynamic therapy on malignant tumor. The present study investigated that light-activated hypericin induced the cellular destruction of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. The result showed that hypericin resulted in a drug- and light-dose dependent cytotoxicity in the CNE-2 cells, meaning the photocytotoxicity of hypericin depends on both of the drug concentration (0 – 2.5 μM) and light-doses (1 – 8 J/cm 2 ). We further investigated the apoptosis of the CNE-2 cells 8 hours after photosensitization of hypericin using fluorescence microscopy with Hoechst 33258 staining. Flow cytometry with annexin V-FITC and PI staining was used to analyze early and late apoptosis. These data demonstrated that light-activated hypericin could significantly lead to the cellular destruction of the CNE-2 cells and induce early apoptosis as a prominent mode of cell death.