Photoactivated drug delivery and bioimaging

Abstract

Among the various types of diseases, cancer remains one of the most leading causes of mortality that people are always suffering from and fighting with. So far, the effective cancer treatment demands accurate medical diagnosis, precise surgery, expensive medicine administration, which leads to a significant burden on patients, their families, and the whole national healthcare system around the world. In order to increase the therapeutic efficiency and minimize side effects in cancer treatment, various kinds of stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems and bioimaging platforms have been extensively developed within the past decades. Among them, the strategy of photoactivated approach has attracted considerable research interest because light enables the precise control, in a highly spatial and temporal manner, the release of drug molecules as well as the activation of bioimaging agents. In general, several appropriate photoresponsive systems, which are normally sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) or visible light irradiation to undergo the multiple reaction pathways such as photocleavage and photoisomerization strategy etc. have been mainly involved in the light activated cancer therapies. Considering the potential issues of poor tissue penetration and high photoctotoxicity of short wavelength light, the recently emerged therapies based on long-wavelength irradiation, e.g., near-infrared (NIR) light (700-1000 nm), have displayed distinct advantages in biomedical applications. The light irradiation at NIR window indicates minimized photodamage, deep penetration, and low autofluorescence in living cells and tissues, which are of clinical importance in the desired diagnosis and therapy. In this review article, we introduce the recent advances in light-activated drug release and biological imaging mainly for anticancer treatment. Various types of strategies such as photocage, photo-induced isomerization, optical upconversion, and photothermal release by which different wavelength ranges of light can play the important roles in the controlled therapeutic or imaging agents delivery, and activation will be systemically discussed. In addition, the challenges and future perspectives for photo-based cancer theranostics will be also summarized. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2017, 9:e1408. doi: 10.1002/wnan.1408 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Remote Light‐Responsive Nanocarriers for Controlled Drug Delivery: Advances and Perspectives

“…In addition to the shallow light penetration depth, drug release using these incident light causes severe side effects, particularly the phototoxicity. Therefore, the development of more reliable alternatives that enable a high depth tissue penetration and more precise control of photoactivation reaction as well as minimum cellular damage is of clinical importance …”

“…Therefore, the development of more reliable alternatives that enable a high depth tissue penetration and more precise control of photoactivation reaction as well as minimum cellular damage is of clinical importance. [59,[83][84][85] To this end, the most suitable light source for photo responsive drug delivery nanosystem is the light with wavelength between 650 and 900 nm. [86] In particular, the wavelength range of Small 2019, 15,1903060 Scheme 4.…”

On Command Drug Delivery via Cell‐Conveyed Phototherapeutics

“…Light, as a drug delivery stimulus, has received a great deal of attention due to three useful properties: high spatiotemporal resolution, wavelength-specific transmission, and ready modulation of photon flux. [12,13] In this regard, we have developed an RBCmediated, light-responsive, drug delivery technology by taking advantage of a unique property of the B12-drug conjugates: B12 and its corresponding conjugates are membrane impermeable. However, upon photolysis, the liberated drug is rendered membrane permeable and readily exits the RBC carrier.…”

“…For example, external triggers, including light, have been used to elicit drug discharge in a spatially selective fashion . Indeed, given the ability to modulate light spatially, temporally, by intensity, and by wavelength, it is not surprising that a wide variety of light responsive agents, including drugs and proteins, have been reported . Nonetheless, the development of long‐lived, widely distributed phototherapeutic agents that respond to tissue‐penetrating wavelengths remains a sought‐after goal.…”

Reduced graphene oxide‐based electrochemically stimulated method for temozolomide delivery

“…In order to solve these problems, the research scientists have been working on nanomaterials (Blum et al., ), nanocarriers (Mura, Nicolas, & Couvreur, ), polymers (Alarcón, Pennadam, & Alexander, ), thin films (Anandhakumara, Gokula, & Raichurb, ) and hydrogels (O'Neill et al., ) these materials work through external stimuli hold capacity for controlled drug delivery. Furthermore, light activated (Timko, Dvir, & Kahane, ; Yang, Mu, & Xing, ), temperature (Akimoto, Nakayama, & Okano, ), ultrasound (Rapoport, Kennedy, Shea, Scaife, & Nam, ), magnetic‐field (Pan, Zhang, et al., ), mechanical stress (Lee, Peters, & Mooney, ), glucose (Qui & Park, ) and pH changes (Wang, Tian, et al., ) method of drug release had been studied. Particularly for targeted drug release by an electrically stimulated method have been extensively studied with polyampholyte hydrogel (Ekici & Tetik, ), polypyrrole (Lopez et al., ; Luo and Cui, ), polymer‐gel (Kwan, Bae, & Wankin, ) and graphene oxide composite film (Weaver, LaRosa, Luo, & Cui, ).…”