Synthesis and characterization of photosensitive gelatin-based hydrogels for photodynamic therapy in HeLa-CCL2 cell line

•A nanohydrogel system, encapsulated with chloroaluminium phthalocyanine (ClAlPc), was synthesized Using gelatin as based polymer by the chemical cross-linking technique.•SEM analysis showed the presence of three-dimensional networks in the formulation.•The loading efficiency was 70%.•The results of trypan blue exclusion test have shown significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the cell viability for all groups treated with PDT, in all concentrations tested.