New-generation photosensitizer-anchored gold nanorods for a single near-infrared light-triggered targeted photodynamic–photothermal therapy |
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| Authors: | Zongjunlin Liu Fang Xie Jun Xie Jianhao Chen Yang Li Qin Lin Fanghong Luo Jianghua Yan |
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| Affiliation: | aSchool of Medicine, Anti-Cancer Center, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China;bDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Xiamen Cancer Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China;cXiamen Institute of Rare Earth Materials, Institute of Haixi, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China |
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| Abstract: | Traditional combined photodynamic and photothermal therapy (PDT/PTT) was limited in clinical treatment of cancer due to the exceptionally low drug delivery efficiency to tumor sites and the activation by laser excitation with different wavelengths. We have accidentally discovered that our synthesized chlorin e6-C-15-ethyl ester (HB, a new type of photosensitizer) be activated by a laser with an excitation wavelength of 660 nm. Herein, we utilized Au nanorods (AuNRs) as 660 nm-activated PTT carriers to be successively surface-functionalized with HB and tumor-targeting peptide cyclic RGD (cRGD) to develop HB-AuNRs@cRGD for single NIR laser-induced targeted PDT/PTT. The HB-AuNRs@cRGD could be preferentially accumulated within tumor sites and rapidly internalized by cancer cells. Thereby, the HB-AuNRs@cRGD could exhibit amplified therapeutic effects by producing both significant reactive oxygen species (ROS) and hyperthermia simultaneously under the guidance of fluorescence imaging. The tumor inhibition rate on ECA109 esophageal cancer model was approximately 77.04%, and the negligible systematic toxicity was observed. This study proposed that HB-AuNRs@cRGD might be a promising strategy for single NIR laser-induced and imaging-guided targeted bimodal phototherapy. |
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| Keywords: | Phototherapy esophageal cancer chlorin e6-C-15-ethyl ester Au nanorods cRGD |
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