Molecular design to improve catalyst performance is significant but challenging. In enzymes, residue groups that are close to reaction centers play critical roles in regulating activities. Using this bioinspired strategy, three water‐soluble polymers were designed with appending Co porphyrins and different side‐chain groups to mimic enzyme reaction centers and activity‐controlling residue groups, respectively. With these polymers, high hydrogen evolution efficiency was achieved in neutral aqueous media for electro‐ (turnover frequency >2.3×104 s−1) and photocatalysis (turnover number >2.7×104). Porphyrin units are surrounded and protected by polymer chains, and more importantly, the activity can be tuned with different side‐chain groups. Therefore, instead of revising molecular structures that is difficult from both design and synthesis points of view, polymers can be used to improve molecular solubility and stability and simultaneously regulate activity by using side‐chain groups.

Imaging-guided chemo-phototherapy based on multifunctional nanocarriers has emerged as a promising and high-efficient cancer treatment because of the inevitable limitations of single therapy. Herein, a near-infrared (NIR) light-activated degradable polymeric nanoplatform was fabricated for chemo-phototherapy. An NIR photosensitizer, IR780, and a chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin (DOX), were efficiently coloaded within a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-sensitive polymeric micelle based on an amphiphilic copolymer with degradable thioketal (TK) linkages. The obtained spherical nanoparticles (denoted as (IR780/DOX)@PTK) exhibited a notable photodynamic and photothermal effect upon NIR light exposure. Furthermore, due to the rapid cleavage of TK linkers induced by ROS generated from NIR-activated IR780, (IR780/DOX)@PTK also showed an NIR light-induced degradable feature, which can be used for light-triggered tumor-specific drug release and lead to ignorable systematic toxicity after biodegradation and drug delivery. Under the guidance of NIR fluorescence and photothermal dual modal imaging, (IR780/DOX)@PTK exhibited excellent tumor accumulation after intravenously injection into 4T1-tumor-bearing mice. As verified in both in vitro and in vivo study, (IR780/DOX)@PTK presented a significant tumor suppression effect by synergistic chemo-phototherapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a promising and spatiotemporally controllable cancer treatment modality. However, serious skin photosensitization during the PDT process limits the clinical application of PDT. Thus, the construction of “smart” and multifunctional photosensitizers has attracted substantial interest. Herein, we develop a mitochondria-targeting and pH-switched hybrid supramolecular photosensitizer by the host–guest interaction. The PDT efficacy of supramolecular photosensitizers can be quenched by the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) effect during long circulation and activated by the dissociation of supramolecular photosensitizers in an acidic tumor microenvironment, benefitting from the dynamic feature of the host–guest interaction and pH responsiveness of the water-soluble pillar[5]­arene on gold nanoparticles. The rational integration of mitochondria-targeting and reductive glutathione (GSH) elimination in the hybrid switchable supramolecular photosensitizer prolongs the lifetime of reactive oxygen species generated in the PDT near mitochondria and further amplifies the PDT efficacy. Thus, the facile and versatile construction of switchable supramolecular photosensitizer offers not only the targeted and precise phototherapy but also high therapeutic efficacy, which would provide a new path for the clinic application of PDT.

The antitumor efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) is greatly impeded by the nonspecific targeting of photosensitizers and limited oxygen supply in hypoxic tumors. Aiming to overcome the problem, a dual-locked porphyrin/ enzyme-loading zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) nanoplatform was constructed for starvation therapy and O 2 self-sufficient PDT. The fluorescence recovery and PDT of photosensitizers could be cooperatively triggered by dual pathological parameters, the low pH and overexpressed GSH in tumor tissues, which makes the PDT process conduct precisely in a tumor microenvironment. The cascade catalysis of glucose oxidase and catalase promotes the nanoplatform dissociation, inhibits the energy supply of tumors (starvation therapy), and provides enough O 2 to ameliorate the hypoxia and enhance PDT efficacy. In vitro and in vivo studies were performed to confirm the high antitumor efficacy of the porphyrin/enzyme-loading ZIF nanoplatform. Thus, this work offers a path for precise and efficient PDT-based combination therapy against a hypoxia tumor.

Molecular design to improve catalyst performance is significant but challenging. In enzymes, residue groups that are close to reaction centers play critical roles in regulating activities. Using this bioinspired strategy, three water‐soluble polymers were designed with appending Co porphyrins and different side‐chain groups to mimic enzyme reaction centers and activity‐controlling residue groups, respectively. With these polymers, high hydrogen evolution efficiency was achieved in neutral aqueous media for electro‐ (turnover frequency >2.3×104 s−1) and photocatalysis (turnover number >2.7×104). Porphyrin units are surrounded and protected by polymer chains, and more importantly, the activity can be tuned with different side‐chain groups. Therefore, instead of revising molecular structures that is difficult from both design and synthesis points of view, polymers can be used to improve molecular solubility and stability and simultaneously regulate activity by using side‐chain groups.