A high therapeutic efficacy of polymeric prodrug nano-assembly for a combination of photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy

Abstract

Combination of photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy has been emerging as a new strategy for cancer treatment. Conventional photosensitizer tends to aggregate in aqueous media, which causes fluorescence quenching, reduces reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and limits its clinical application to photodynamic therapy. Traditional nanoparticle drug delivery system for chemotherapy also has its disadvantages, such as low drug loading content, drug leakage, and off-target toxicity for normal tissues. Here, we developed a reduction-sensitive co-delivery micelles TB@PMP for combinational therapy, which composed of entrapping a red aggregation-induced emission fluorogen (AIEgen) for photodynamic therapy and PMP that contains a reduction-sensitive paclitaxel polymeric prodrug for chemotherapy. AIEgen photosensitizer illustrates a much improved photostability and ROS production efficiency in aggregate state and PMP loads a high dose of paclitaxel and carries a smart stimuli-triggered drug release property. This co-delivery system provides a better option that replaces AIEgen photosensitizer for cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Nanogel: A Versatile Nano-Delivery System for Biomedical Applications

“…In addition, the limited penetration of tumor tissue by the laser reduces the efficacy of PDT [131]. Therefore, the combination of PDT and chemotherapy offers a potent approach to achieve synergistic anticancer effects [132,133]. Nanogels have been employed as a multifunctional delivery platform for chemo-photodynamic combinational therapy.…”

Peptide-based nanomaterials for gene therapy

“…97 Different from fluorescent molecules affected by ACQ effect, AIE luminogens (AIEgens) do not need to control the concentration during use and can emit fluorescence in the aggregated state, and some AIEgens have photosensitivity, so they are widely used in bioimaging, [98][99][100][101] biosensing 102,103 and the field of biological therapy. [104][105][106][107][108][109] Our group have reviewed some applications of AIE-based materials. [110][111][112] The covalent binding of AIEgens and peptides not only has the biological functions of peptides but also has the aggregation luminescence properties of AIEgens, which helps deliver gene therapy drugs.…”

Doping engineering of conductive polymer hydrogels and their application in advanced sensor technologies

“…There have been remarkable advances in developing CPHs, such as those containing polyaniline (PAni), polypyrrole (PPy), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), and polythiophene (PTh) 4,5. These hydrogels have exhibited tunable microstructures and chemical/physical properties, which enable broad applications in sensors,6,7 energy storage,8–11 solar vapor generation,12,13 dynamic drug delivery,14–16 and repellent surfaces 17,18…”