Zeng Weiwei, Xu Yan, Yang Weitao, Liu Kai, Bian Kexin, Zhang Bingbo
Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Ultrasound Research and Education Institute, Tongji University Cancer Center, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200072, China.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2020 Sep;9(17):e2000560. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202000560. Epub 2020 Jul 21.
Ultrasound (US)-triggered sonodynamic therapy (SDT) can significantly solve the problem of tissue penetrability of light of photodynamic therapy (PDT) that has long vexed physicians in clinics. However, there is a great shortage of sonosensitizers for SDT. Currently, several photosensitizers and their derivatives have been reported for SDT but these dyes are usually quenched when aggregated due to aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect. In this work, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) dye (TTMN) assembled nanoparticles (S-AIE) are synthesized and employed as sonosensitizers for enhanced SDT due to the unique properties of the AIE dye and the deep tissue penetration of ultrasound. Results show that S-AIE can generate potent singlet oxygen (O) under US irradiation to induce cancer cells apoptosis and clearly inhibit tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. In particular, the intrinsic fluorescence of AIE dye can guide the procedure of SDT. To the best of current knowledge, this is the first demonstration of AIE dyes being used as sonosensitizers for SDT and importantly, this work could inspire other more efficient AIE dyes for being used as sonosensitizers for SDT of deep-seated tumors.
超声（US）触发的声动力疗法（SDT）能够显著解决光动力疗法（PDT）中光的组织穿透性问题，这一问题长期困扰着临床医生。然而，用于SDT的声敏剂严重短缺。目前，已有几种光敏剂及其衍生物被报道用于SDT，但这些染料由于聚集诱导猝灭（ACQ）效应，在聚集时通常会猝灭。在这项工作中，由于AIE染料的独特性质和超声的深层组织穿透性，合成了聚集诱导发光（AIE）染料（TTMN）组装的纳米颗粒（S-AIE）并将其用作声敏剂以增强SDT。结果表明，S-AIE在超声照射下能产生强效单线态氧（O），诱导癌细胞凋亡，并在体外和体内明显抑制肿瘤生长。特别是，AIE染料的固有荧光可以指导SDT过程。据目前所知，这是首次证明AIE染料可用作SDT的声敏剂，重要的是，这项工作可能会激发其他更有效的AIE染料用作深部肿瘤SDT的声敏剂。
