School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 70 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637457, USA.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Apr 23;58(18):5920-5924. doi: 10.1002/anie.201814730. Epub 2019 Mar 26.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) holds great promise for cancer therapy; however, its efficacy is often compromised by tumor hypoxia. Herein, we report the synthesis of a semiconducting polymer nanoprodrug (SPNpd) that not only efficiently generates singlet oxygen ( O ) under NIR photoirradiation but also specifically activates its chemotherapeutic action in hypoxic tumor microenvironment. SPNpd is self-assembled from a amphiphilic polymer brush, which comprises a light-responsive photodynamic backbone grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) and conjugated with a chemodrug through hypoxia-cleavable linkers. The well-defined and compact nanostructure of SPNpd (30 nm) enables accumulation in the tumor of living mice. Owing to these features, SPNpd exerts synergistic photodynamic and chemo-therapy, and effectively inhibits tumor growth in a xenograft tumor mouse model. This study represents the first hypoxia-activatable phototherapeutic polymeric prodrug system with a high potential for cancer therapy.
光动力疗法(PDT)在癌症治疗中具有广阔的应用前景,但它的疗效常因肿瘤缺氧而受到影响。在此,我们报告了一种半导体聚合物纳米药物(SPNpd)的合成,该纳米药物不仅能在近红外光照射下高效产生单线态氧(1 O 2 ),而且能在缺氧肿瘤微环境中特异性激活其化疗作用。SPNpd 由两亲聚合物刷自组装而成,聚合物刷由光响应的 PDT 主链通过缺氧可裂解键与化疗药物相连,并接枝有聚乙二醇。SPNpd 的规整和紧凑的纳米结构(30nm)使其能在活体小鼠的肿瘤部位积累。由于这些特性,SPNpd 发挥了协同的光动力和化疗作用,能有效抑制异种移植肿瘤小鼠模型中的肿瘤生长。本研究代表了第一个具有高癌症治疗潜力的缺氧激活光疗聚合物前药系统。