Although photothermal therapy (PTT) with the assistance of nanotechnology has been considered as an indispensable strategy in the biomedical field, it still encounters some severe problems that need to be solved. Excessive heat can induce treated cells to develop thermal resistance, and thus, the efficacy of PTT may be dramatically decreased. In the meantime, the uncontrollable diffusion of heat can pose a threat to the surrounding healthy tissues. Recently, low-temperature PTT (also known as mild PTT or mild-temperature PTT) has demonstrated its remarkable capacity of conquering these obstacles and has shown excellent performance in bacterial elimination, wound healing, and cancer treatments. Herein, we summarize the recently proposed strategies for achieving low-temperature PTT based on nanomaterials and introduce the synthesis, characteristics, and applications of these nanoplatforms. Additionally, the combination of PTT and other therapeutic modalities for defeating cancers and the synergistic cancer therapeutic effect of the combined treatments are discussed. Finally, the current limitations and future directions are proposed for inspiring more researchers to make contributions to promoting low-temperature PTT toward more successful preclinical and clinical disease treatments.

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We present a comprehensive review on the advancements in cell surface modification strategies and their applications in cell surface-localized imaging and sensing.

Bacterial infection has become an urgent health problem in the world. Especially, the evolving resistance of bacteria to antibiotics makes the issue more challenging, and thus new treatments to fight these infections are needed. Antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is recognized as a novel and promising method to inactivate a wide range of bacteria with few possibilities to develop drug resistance. However, the photosensitizers (PSs) are not effective against Gram-negative bacteria in many cases. Herein, we use conjugated meso-tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)porphine (TCPP) and triaminoguanidinium chloride (TG) to construct self-assembled cationic TCPP-TG nanoparticles (NPs) for efficient bacterial inactivation under visible light illumination. The TCPP-TG NPs can rapidly adhere to both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and display promoted singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) generation compared with TCPP under light irradiation. The high local positive charge density of TCPP-TG NPs facilitates the interaction between the NPs and bacteria. Consequently, the TCPP-TG NPs produce an elevated concentration of local 1 O 2 under light irradiation, resulting in an extraordinarily high antibacterial efficiency (99.9999% inactivation of the representative bacteria within 4 min). Furthermore, the TCPP-TG NPs show excellent water dispersity and stability during 4 months of storage. Therefore, the rationally designed TCPP-TG NPs are a promising antibacterial agent for effective aPDT.

Microbial infections pose major threats to human health, and such a situation is further exasperated by microbial resistance to conventional antibiotics. It is therefore highly imperative to develop antimicrobial agents or strategies to achieve effective microbicidal effects. Recently, conjugated polymers (CPs) have shown their capacity to serve as effective photothermal agents (PTAs) for antimicrobial photothermal therapy (PTT). In this review, we first introduce the latest advances in the development of CPs as PTAs for combating microbes. We focus on the most-investigated polydopamine (PDA)-based PTT for killing microorganisms, in which the PDA-based PTAs are mainly in the formulations of nanoparticles, hydrogels, and surface coatings. Meanwhile, we present antimicrobial PTT based on the other CPs, including polypyrrole, polyaniline, and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene). Finally, we discuss both the current limitations and future directions of the CP-derived antimicrobial PTT.