School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637457, Singapore.
Chemistry. 2018 Aug 22;24(47):12121-12130. doi: 10.1002/chem.201705716. Epub 2018 Mar 2.
Semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) have been used as a new class of photonic materials with great potential in biomedical applications, but their synthetic method is limited to nanoprecipitation. Semiconducting polymer amphiphiles (SPAs) that can spontaneously self-assemble into nanoparticles are ideal alternatives for SPNs. Depending on their backbone structures, SPAs with different optical properties can be developed into nanoprobes for molecular imaging applications such as photoacoustic (PA) and fluorescence imaging as well as photothermal therapy. In this Concept, recent studies on the synthesis of SPAs for PA imaging and guided cancer therapy are summarized. The effect of grafting density on the optical properties of SPAs is discussed, and the nanoparticle sizes of SPAs can be reduced by utilization of a short semiconducting oligomer. Moreover, SPAs can be developed into PA theranostic platform and activatable PA nanoprobes. These studies demonstrate that SPAs are promising for advanced molecular imaging and therapy applications.
半导体聚合物纳米粒子（SPNs）已被用作一类具有巨大生物医学应用潜力的新型光子材料，但它们的合成方法仅限于纳米沉淀。可以自发自组装成纳米粒子的半导体聚合物两亲物（SPAs）是 SPNs 的理想替代品。根据其主链结构，可以将具有不同光学性质的 SPAs 开发成用于分子成像应用的纳米探针，例如光声（PA）和荧光成像以及光热治疗。在本概念中，总结了用于 PA 成像和引导癌症治疗的 SPA 的合成的最新研究。讨论了接枝密度对 SPA 光学性质的影响，并且可以通过利用短半导体低聚物来减小 SPA 的纳米颗粒尺寸。此外，SPAs 可以开发成 PA 治疗平台和可激活的 PA 纳米探针。这些研究表明，SPAs 非常适合高级分子成像和治疗应用。
