Gai et al examine the recent progress in rare earth micro/nanocrystals with regard to soft chemical synthesis, luminescent properties, and biomedical applications.
The past decades have witnessed hyperthermia therapy (HTT) as an emerging strategy against malignant tumors. Nanomaterial‐based photothermal therapy (PTT) and magnetic hyperthermia (MHT), as highly ...effective and noninvasive treatment models, offer advantages over other strategies in the treatment of different types of tumors. However, both PTT and MHT cannot completely cure cancer due to recurrence and distal metastasis. In recent years, cancer immunotherapy has attracted widespread attention owing to its capability to activate the body's own natural defense to identify, attack, and eradicate cancer cells. Significant efforts have been devoted to studying the activated immune responses caused by hyperthermia‐ablated tumors. In this article, the synergistic mechanism of HTT in immunotherapy, including immunogenic cell death and reversal of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment is discussed. The reports of the combination of HTT or HTT‐based multimodal therapy with immunotherapy, including immunoadjuvant exploitation, immune checkpoint blockade therapy, and adoptive cellular immunotherapy are summarized. As highlighted, these strategies could achieve synergistically enhanced therapeutic outcomes against both primary tumors and metastatic lesions, prevent cancer recurrence, and prolong the survival period. Finally, current challenges and prospective developments in HTT‐synergized immunotherapy are also reviewed.
Nanomaterial‐based hyperthermia therapy (HTT) including photothermal therapy and magnetic hyperthermia can not only ablate different types of primary tumors, but also sensitize tumors to create a highly immunogenic tumor microenvironment for immunotherapy to further fight against cancer metastasis and recurrence. Hence, such an HTT‐synergized immunotherapy approach offers a powerful method for curing cancer completely.
808 nm‐light‐excited lanthanide (Ln3+)‐doped nanoparticles (LnNPs) hold great promise for a wide range of applications, including bioimaging diagnosis and anticancer therapy. This is due to their ...unique properties, including their minimized overheating effect, improved penetration depth, relatively high quantum yields, and other common features of LnNPs. In this review, the progress of 808 nm‐excited LnNPs is reported, including their i) luminescence mechanism, ii) luminescence enhancement, iii) color tuning, iv) diagnostic and v) therapeutic applications. Finally, the future outlook and challenges of 808 nm‐excited LnNPs are presented.
808‐nm‐excited lanthanide (Ln3+)‐doped nanoparticles (LnNPs) hold great promise for a wide range of applications, spanning from bioimaging diagnosis to anticancer therapy. In this review, we present a comprehensive evaluation of the luminescence mechanism, luminescence enhancement, color tuning, and theranostic applications of 808‐nm‐excited LnNPs for the first time.
As a new kind of porous material, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8) are built from zinc ions and 2-methylimidazolate and possess unique merits including high porosity, good structural ...regularity and tunability, adjustable surface functionality and intrinsic pH induced biodegradability. These advantages endow ZIF-8 with multiple functionalities and stimuli-responsive controlled release of loaded payloads by endogenous or exogenous means. In this review, we will summarize the recent advancement of ZIF-8 as nanocarriers for the loading of various molecules including chemotherapeutic drugs, photosensitizers, photothermal agents, and proteins to fabricate multifunctional nanocomposites for synergistic cancer therapy. In addition, the challenges and future developments in this area will be highlighted.
Lanthanide ion (Ln(3+))-based upconversion nano/micromaterials that emit higher-energy visible light when excited by low-energy NIR light have aroused considerable attention in the forefront of ...materials science and biomedical fields, which stems from their unique optical and chemical properties including minimum photodamage to living organisms, low autofluorescence, high signal-to-noise ratio and detection sensitivity, and high penetration depth in biological or environmental samples. Thus, Ln(3+)-based upconversion materials are rising new stars and are quickly emerging as potential candidates to revolutionize novel biomedical applications. In this review article, we mainly focus on the recent progress in various chemical syntheses of Ln(3+)-based upconversion nanomaterials, with special emphasis on their application in stimuli-response controlled drug release and subsequent therapy. Functional groups that are introduced into the stimuli-responsive system can respond to external triggers, such as pH, temperature, light, and even magnetic fields, which can regulate the movement of the pharmaceutical cargo and release the drug at a desired time and in a desired area. This is crucial to boost drug efficacy in cancer treatment while minimizing the side effects of cytotoxic drugs. Many multifunctional (magnetic/upconversion luminescence and porous) composite materials based on Ln(3+) have been designed for controlled drug delivery and multimodal bioimaging. Finally, the challenges and future opportunities for Ln(3+)-based upconversion materials are discussed.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising antitumor treatment that is based on the photosensitizers that inhibit cancer cells by yielding reactive oxygen species (ROS) after irradiation of light with ...specific wavelengths. As a potential photosensitizer, titanium dioxide (TiO2) exhibits minimal dark cytotoxicity and excellent ultraviolet (UV) light triggered cytotoxicity, but is challenged by the limited tissue penetration of UV light. Herein, a novel near-infrared (NIR) light activated photosensitizer for PDT based on TiO2-coated upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) core/shell nanocomposites (UCNPs@TiO2 NCs) is designed. NaYF4:Yb3+,Tm3+@NaGdF4:Yb3+ core/shell UCNPs can efficiently convert NIR light to UV emission that matches well with the absorption of TiO2 shells. The UCNPs@TiO2 NCs endocytosed by cancer cells are able to generate intracellular ROS under NIR irradiation, decreasing the mitochondrial membrane potential to release cytochrome c into the cytosol and then activating caspase 3 to induce cancer cell apoptosis. NIR light triggered PDT of tumor-bearing mice with UCNPs@TiO2 as photosensitizers can suppress tumor growth efficiently due to the better tissue penetration than UV irradiation. On the basis of the evidence of in vitro and in vivo results, UCNPs@TiO2 NCs could serve as an effective photosensitizer for NIR light mediated PDT in antitumor therapy.
In this work, we prepared two types of isostructural Ln3+-based metal–organic frameworks (LnMOFs) under solvothermal conditions, where two structurally similar pyridine-containing dicarboxylate ...ligands, 6-(4-carboxyphenyl)nicotinic acid and 2,2′-bipyridine-5,5′-dicarboxylic acid, were used as the organic linkers. The as-synthesized LnMOF compounds were characterized using single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), powder XRD, and thermogravimetric analysis. With the lanthanide co-doping approach, two mixed LnMOFs, Tb0.95Eu0.05cpna and Tb0.95Eu0.05bpydc, were obtained and evaluated for application as potential ratiometric luminescence thermometers. The temperature-dependent luminescence of the two materials was investigated, and their emission intensities, luminescence lifetimes, and thermometric parameters were compared. They exhibit an excellent S-shaped response for temperatures in the range of 25–300 K, with favorable relative sensitivity and temperature uncertainty. Moreover, their color changes from green at 25 K to red at 300 K, so that they are also suitable as colorimetric luminescent probes.
Nowadays, photodynamic therapy (PDT) is under the research spotlight as an appealing modality for various malignant tumors. Compared with conventional PDT treatment activated by ultraviolet or ...visible light, near infrared (NIR) light‐triggered PDT possessing deeper penetration to lesion area and lower photodamage to normal tissue holds great potential for in vivo deep‐seated tumor. In this review, recent research progress related to the exploration of NIR light responsive PDT nanosystems is summarized. To address current obstacles of PDT treatment and facilitate the effective utilization, several innovative strategies are developed and introduced into PDT nanosystems, including the conjugation with targeted moieties, O2 self‐sufficient PDT, dual photosensitizers (PSs)‐loaded PDT nanoplatform, and PDT‐involved synergistic therapy. Finally, the potential challenges as well as the prospective for further development are also discussed.
Near infrared (NIR) light triggered photodynamic therapy (PDT) has gained much attention as a promising treatment for malignant tumors. This Review presents an overview of recent progress on the development of NIR light‐activated photosensitizers (PSs), and the design of advanced NIR light triggered PDT nanosystems including tumor‐targeted PDT, O2 self‐sufficient PDT, dual PSs‐loaded PDT, and PDT involved synergistic therapy.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT), as a minimally invasive and high‐efficiency anticancer approach, has received extensive research attention recently. Despite plenty of effort devoted to exploring various ...types of photodynamic agents with strong near‐infrared (NIR) absorbance for PDT and many encouraging progresses achieved in the area, effective and safe photodynamic photosensitizers with good biodegradability and biocompatibility are still highly expected. In this work, a novel nanocomposite has been developed by assembly of iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) and Au nanoparticles on black phosphorus sheets (BPs@Au@Fe3O4), which shows a broad light absorption band and a photodegradable character. In vitro and in vivo assay indicates that BPs@Au@Fe3O4 nanoparticles are highly biocompatible and exhibit excellent tumor inhibition efficacy owing to a synergistic photothermal and photodynamic therapy mediated by a low‐power NIR laser. Importantly, BPs@Au@Fe3O4 can anticipatorily suppress tumor growth by visualized synergistic therapy with the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This work presents the first combination application of the photodynamic and photothermal effect deriving from black phosphorus nanosheets and plasmonic photothermal effect from Au nanoparticles together with MRI from Fe3O4 NPs, which may open the new utilization of black phosphorus nanosheets in biomedicine, optoelectronic devices, and photocatalysis.
A novel nanoplatform with photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) effect is first developed by assembly of iron oxide nanoparticles and Au nanoparticles on black phosphorus sheets, which exhibits excellent tumor inhibition efficacy due to a synergistic PDT and PTT mediated by a low‐power near‐infrared laser, and the therapeutic process can be visualized by magnetic resonance imaging.
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays a key role in therapeutic effects as well as side effects of platinum drugs. Cisplatin mediates activation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) ...oxidase (NOX), which triggers oxygen (O2) to superoxide radical (O2 • –) and its downstream H2O2. Through the Fenton’s reaction, H2O2 could be catalyzed by Fe2+/Fe3+ to the toxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH), which cause oxidative damages to lipids, proteins, and DNA. By taking the full advantage of Fenton’s chemistry, we herein demonstrated tumor site-specific conversion of ROS generation induced by released cisplatin and Fe2+/Fe3+ from iron-oxide nanocarriers with cisplatin(IV) prodrugs for enhanced anticancer activity but minimized systemic toxicity.
