Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Material Sciences and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, China.
Biomater Sci. 2017 Nov 21;5(12):2456-2467. doi: 10.1039/c7bm00798a.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel technique that has been extensively employed in cancer treatment; it utilizes reactive oxygen species to kill malignant cells. However, poor performance of the photosensitizer itself, limited penetration depth and the overexpression of glutathione (GSH) in cancer cells are the major obstacles facing the actual clinical application of PDT. Inspired by the challenges mentioned above, here we propose multifunctional nanoparticles utilizing mesoporous manganese silicate (MnSiO)-coated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) as nanocarriers for loading highly fluorescent graphitic-phase carbon nitride quantum dots (g-CN QDs) to simultaneously act as a photosensitive drug and imaging agent. Surface modification of the nanoparticles with polyethylene glycol (PEG) endows the samples (denoted as UMCNs-PEG) with excellent biocompatibility and long-term in vivo circulation. Taking advantage of the inherent performance of the as-synthesized nanoparticles, multimodality imaging, including upconversion luminescence (UCL), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has been achieved; this is conducive to providing effective treatment information by real-time monitoring. In vivo photodynamic therapy to achieve effective tumor inhibition was then realized without inducing significant toxicity to treated mice. As a result, this work provides a novel paradigm with highly integrated functionalities which not only exhibits excellent prospects for imaging-guided photodynamic anticancer therapy but also encourages further exploration of new types of multifunctional nanoparticles for biomedical applications.
光动力疗法（PDT）是一种已广泛应用于癌症治疗的新技术；它利用活性氧来杀死恶性细胞。然而，光敏剂本身的性能不佳、穿透深度有限以及癌细胞中谷胱甘肽（GSH）的过表达是 PDT 实际临床应用面临的主要障碍。受上述挑战的启发，我们提出了一种多功能纳米粒子，利用介孔硅锰（MnSiO）包覆的上转换纳米粒子（UCNPs）作为纳米载体，负载高荧光石墨相氮化碳量子点（g-CN QDs），同时作为光敏药物和成像剂。通过用聚乙二醇（PEG）对纳米粒子进行表面修饰，赋予了样品（表示为 UMCNs-PEG）优异的生物相容性和长期体内循环。利用所合成的纳米粒子的固有性能，实现了多模态成像，包括上转换发光（UCL）、计算机断层扫描（CT）和磁共振成像（MRI）；这有利于通过实时监测提供有效的治疗信息。然后，实现了体内光动力治疗以有效抑制肿瘤，而对治疗小鼠没有引起明显的毒性。因此，这项工作提供了一种具有高度集成功能的新范例，不仅展示了在成像引导光动力抗癌治疗方面的广阔前景，而且还鼓励进一步探索用于生物医学应用的新型多功能纳米粒子。
