Tianjin Key Laboratory of Function and Application of Biological Macromolecular Structures, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
Engineering Research Center of Molecular & Neuroimaging, Ministry of Education School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710126, China.
J Control Release. 2023 Aug;360:564-577. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.07.015. Epub 2023 Jul 14.
Phototherapies, mainly including photodynamic and photothermal therapy, have made considerable strides in the field of cancer treatment. With the aid of phototherapeutic agents, reactive oxygen species (ROS) or heat are generated under light irradiation to selectively damage cancer cells. However, sole-modality phototherapy faces certain drawbacks, such as limited penetration of phototherapeutic agents into tumor tissues, inefficient ROS generation due to hypoxia, treatment-induced inflammation and resistance of tumor to treatment (e.g., high levels of antioxidants, expression of heat shock protein). Gas therapy, an emerging therapy approach that damages cancer cells by improving the level of certain gas at the tumor site, shows potential to overcome the challenges associated with phototherapies. In addition, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, gas-assisted phototherapy based on nanomedicines has emerged as a promising strategy to enhance the treatment efficacy. This review summarizes recent advances in gas-assisted phototherapy and discusses the prospects and challenges of this strategy in cancer phototherapy.
光疗，主要包括光动力疗法和光热疗法，在癌症治疗领域取得了相当大的进展。借助光疗试剂，在光照射下会产生活性氧（ROS）或热量，从而选择性地破坏癌细胞。然而，单一模式的光疗存在一定的缺陷，例如光疗试剂对肿瘤组织的穿透有限、由于缺氧导致 ROS 生成效率低下、治疗引起的炎症以及肿瘤对治疗的耐药性（例如，高水平的抗氧化剂、热休克蛋白的表达）。气体治疗是一种通过提高肿瘤部位某些气体水平来破坏癌细胞的新兴治疗方法，有望克服光疗相关的挑战。此外，随着纳米技术的快速发展，基于纳米药物的气体辅助光疗已经成为增强治疗效果的一种有前途的策略。本综述总结了气体辅助光疗的最新进展，并讨论了该策略在癌症光疗中的前景和挑战。
