Conventional photothermal therapy (PTT) often causes unwanted hyperthermia damage to surrounding healthy tissues, and as well fails in ablation of infiltrating and malignant tumors, which even leads to tumor recurrence....
To
ensure improved efficacy and minimized toxicity of therapeutic
molecules, it is generally accepted that specifically delivering them
to the subcellular site of their action will be attractive. Phototherapy
has received considerable attention because of its noninvasiveness,
high temporal-spatial resolution, and minimal drug resistance. As
important functional organelles in cells, mitochondria and endoplasmic
reticulum (ER) participate in fundamental cellular processes, which
make them much more sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and
hyperthermia. Thus, mitochondria- or ER-targeted phototherapy will
be rational strategies for synergetic cancer therapy. In this review,
we focus on the latest advances in molecules and nanomaterials currently
used for mitochondria- and ER-targeted phototherapy.
Insufficient accumulation of drug at the tumor site and the low drug response are the main reason for the unsatisfactory effect of cancer therapy. Delivery drugs exquisitely to subcellular level can be employed to reduce side effects, and expand the therapeutic window. Herein, a triphenylphosphine (TPP) modified lipid nanoparticles is designed which are loaded with the photosensitizer indocyanine green (ICG) and chemotherapeutic paclitaxel (PTX) for mitochondria‐targeted chemo‐phototherapy. Owing to the movement of majority mitochondria along microtubules in cytoplasm, mitochondrial targeting may enable PTX to act more effectively. Meanwhile, the existence of chemo‐drug potentiates the phototherapy to achieve synergistic anti‐tumor activity. As expected, mitochondria targeting nanomedicine (M‐ICG‐PTX NPs) showed improved mitochondria targeted cellular distribution and enhanced cell cytotoxicity in vitro. Also, M‐ICG‐PTX NPs exhibited higher tumor growth inhibition ability by promoting cell apoptosis and oxeiptosis pathway, and high effective inhibition of primary tumor growth and tumor metastasis. Taken together, M‐ICG‐PTX NPs may be promising nanoplatforms to achieve potent therapeutic effect for the combination of chemo‐ and photo‐therapy (PTT).
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