Biomimetic approach offers numerous opportunities to design therapeutic platforms with enhanced antitumor performance and biocompatibility. Herein we report red blood cell membrane-camouflaged nanoparticles (RBC(M(TPC-PTX))) for synergistic chemo- and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Specifically, the inner core is mainly constructed by reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive PTX dimer (PTX-TK) and photosensitizer 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylchlorin (TPC). In vitro experiments show that the prepared RBC(M(TPC-PTX)) is readily taken up into endosomes. Under appropriate light irradiation, the TPC can generate ROS, not only for PDT but also for triggering PTX-TK cleavage and on-demand PTX release for chemotherapy. In vivo results show that the coating of RBC membrane prolongs blood circulation and improves tumor accumulation. The combination of chemo- and photodynamic therapy enhances anticancer therapeutic activity, and light-triggered drug release reduces systematic toxicity. All these characteristics render the described technology extremely promising for cancer treatment.

The limitation for the biomedical application of porous organic polymers (POPs) is the big size and poor dispersibility in aqueous media. Herein, a nanoscale metal−organic framework (MOF)@POP composite, named UNM, has been synthesized by epitaxial growth of the photoactive porphyrin-POPs (H 2 P-POP) on the outer surface of amine containing UiO-66 (UiO-AM). After the growth of POPs, the crystallization, pore structure, and size distribution of UNM are retained well. The formed UNM possesses a small size of less than 200 nm and could be internalized by cancer cells. Such light-activated UNM exhibits efficient ability to generate 1 O 2 under various experimental conditions, which can be further applied for PDT efficacy. The present work demonstrates the great potential of nanoscale porous polymers in biomedical fields and cancer treatment.

Porphyrin-containing carbon dots (CDs) possess ultrasmall size, excellent water solubility, and photostability. These CDs can effectively generate cytotoxic singlet oxygen upon irradiation, and induce the cell apoptosis. Photodynamic ability of CDs inhibits the growth of hepatoma. This work not only sheds light on developing functional carbon dots, but also highlights the importance of special-structure precursor molecules in synthesizing functional CDs.

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The innate hypoxic microenvironment of most solid tumors has am ajor influence on tumor growth, invasiveness, and distant metastasis.Here,ahypoxia-activated self-immolative prodrug of paclitaxel (PTX 2-Azo) was synthesized and encapsulated by ap eptide copolymer decorated with the photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6) to prepare light-boosted PTX nanoparticle (Ce6/PTX 2-Azo NP). In this nanoparticle, PTX 2-Azo prevents premature drug leakage and realizes specific release in hypoxic tumor microenvironment and the photosensitizer Ce6 not only efficiently generates singlet oxygen under light irradiation but also acts as ap ositive amplifier to promote the release of PTX. The combination of photodynamic therapy(PDT) and chemotherapyr esults in excellent antitumor efficacy,d emonstrating the great potential for synergistic cancer therapy.

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The diselenide-containing fluorescent molecules (SeBDP) and antitumor drug paclitaxel (SePTX) were synthesized and used for constructing SeBDP nanoparticles (SeBDP NPs) and SePTX NPs in aqueous solution through nanoprecipitation method. Both SeBDP NPs and SePTX NPs exhibit high stability and excellent reduction-sensitivity. More interestingly, SeBDP and SePTX could coassemble into uniform and spherical nanoparticles (co-NPs) with dual functions of fluorescence imaging and antitumor activity. These organic NPs could be internalized by different cells as revealed by confocal laser microscopy. Importantly, the co-NPs exhibited selectivity of cytotoxicities between cancerous and normal cells. The cellular proliferation inhibition toward tumor cells (including HeLa and MCF-7 cells) was obviously higher than that toward normal cells (BEAS-2B and L929 cells), which might be attributed to the increasing reactive oxygen species in cancer cells treated by diselenide-containing NPs. These results highlight the potential of developing diselenide-containing organic molecules as molecularly tunable and sensitive nanoplatform for cancer treatment.

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