Aggregation Induced Emission Fluorogens Based Nanotheranostics for Targeted and Imaging‐Guided Chemo‐Photothermal Combination Therapy

Abstract

Nanotheranostics for biomedical imaging-guided cancer therapy have attracted increasing interest due to their capabilities of both precise tumor diagnosis and high therapeutic efficacy. Among the diverse imaging models, fluorescence imaging have been extensively researched for their high sensitivity, simple operation, and low cost. In this work, aggregation induced emission (AIE) fluorogens based targeted nanotheranostics are facilely fabricated via paclitaxel (PTX) induced assembly of proteins for the first time. Thanks to the unique fluorescence property of AIE fluorogens PhENH , the prepared theranostic nanoplatforms can emit bright fluorescence even after being incorporated with the photothermal therapy agent polypyrrole (PPy), which will often decrease or quench the emission of common fluorescence dyes. The target moiety of cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (cRGD) endows the nanotheranostics with outstanding targeting ability, which can further facilitate the targeted imaging and cancer treatment. As revealed by the in vitro and in vivo experiments, the prepared nanotheranostics human serum albumin-PhENH -PPy-PTX-cRGD shows impressive performance in the targeted fluorescence imaging even after intravenous injection for 48 h, and their combined chemo-photothermal therapy is also very effective. These results indicate that AIE fluorogens based nanotheranostics would find a promising prospect in further improved multimodal imaging and imaging guided cancer treatment.

Strategies for Preparing Albumin-based Nanoparticles for Multifunctional Bioimaging and Drug Delivery

“…Tang's group loaded aggregation-induced emission (AIE) dyes into an albumin-based nanoparticle and achieved good in vivo tumor fluorescence imaging 124 , 125 . The AIE dye could be co-loaded with paclitaxel and polypyrrole (PPy) in albumin-based nanoparticles 126 . The fluorescence of the AIE dye could guide PPy-based PTT, which synergised with paclitaxel-based chemotherapy.…”

Theranostics based on AIEgens

“…Recently, an AIEgen-based theranostic nanoplatform (HSA-PhENH2-PPy-PTX-cRGD) involving FLI-thermal imaging-guided chemo-photothermal combination therapy was designed and prepared 20 . This nanoplatform was comprised of an AIE unit, a cRGD fragment, a PTT agent polypyrrole (PPy) and a CHT agent paclitaxel (PTX).…”

“…In addition, H&E staining revealed that neither significant organ damage nor inflammation was found, suggesting the good bio-compatibility of HSA-PhENH2-PPy-PTX-cRGD NPs. Its good diagnostic ability and excellent therapeutic efficacy made this theranostic system promising for further improving multimodal imaging and imaging-guided cancer treatment 20 .…”

“…Some of the key diagnostics (including FLI, PAI, IR thermal imaging and MRI) and therapies (including gene therapy, CHT, PDT, and PTT) of multifunctional AIEgens. Some elements are adapted with permissions from 17 , copyright 2016 Wiley-VCH; adapted with permissions from 18 , copyright 2017, American Chemical Society; adapted with permissions from 19 , copyright 2015, American Chemical Society; and adapted with permissions from 20 , copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH.…”

“…(C) The tumor growth curves of different groups of mice after the above various treatments. Reproduced with permission from 20 , copyright 2016 Wiley-VCH.…”