Recent Advances of Light-Mediated Theranostics

Abstract

Currently, precision theranostics have been extensively demanded for the effective treatment of various human diseases. Currently, efficient therapy at the targeted disease areas still remains challenging since most available drug molecules lack of selectivity to the pathological sites. Among different approaches, light-mediated therapeutic strategy has recently emerged as a promising and powerful tool to precisely control the activation of therapeutic reagents and imaging probes in vitro and in vivo, mostly attributed to its unique properties including minimally invasive capability and highly spatiotemporal resolution. Although it has achieved initial success, the conventional strategies for light-mediated theranostics are mostly based on the light with short wavelength (e.g., UV or visible light), which may usually suffer from several undesired drawbacks, such as limited tissue penetration depth, unavoidable light absorption/scattering and potential phototoxicity to healthy tissues, etc. Therefore, a near-infrared (NIR) light-mediated approach on the basis of long-wavelength light (700-1000 nm) irradiation, which displays deep-tissue penetration, minimized photo-damage and low autofluoresence in living systems, has been proposed as an inspiring alternative for precisely phototherapeutic applications in the last decades. Despite numerous NIR light-responsive molecules have been currently proposed for clinical applications, several inherent drawbacks, such as troublesome synthetic procedures, low water solubility and limited accumulation abilities in targeted areas, heavily restrict their applications in deep-tissue therapeutic and imaging studies. Thanks to the amazing properties of several nanomaterials with large extinction coefficient in the NIR region, the construction of NIR light responsive nanoplatforms with multifunctions have become promising approaches for deep-seated diseases diagnosis and therapy. In this review, we summarized various light-triggered theranostic strategies and introduced their great advances in biomedical applications in recent years. Moreover, some other promising light-assisted techniques, such as photoacoustic and Cerenkov radiation, were also systemically discussed. Finally, the potential challenges and future perspectives for light-mediated deep-tissue diagnosis and therapeutics were proposed.

Optimal Destabilization of DNA Double Strands by Single‐Nucleobase Caging

“…Photolabile protecting groups have becomeapowerful tooli n biochemical and biomedical research. [1][2][3][4][5] "(Photo)caged" targets such as neurotransmitters, [6,7] peptides, [8] proteins, [9][10][11] me-tabolites, [12] antibiotics [13] and oligonucleotides [14][15][16] can be trapped in an inactive state.U pon irradiation with light, the protecting group is removed, releasing the active target with high spatial and temporal control.…”

Carbon‐Dot‐Mediated Co‐Administration of Chemotherapeutic Agents for Reversing Cisplatin Resistance in Cancer Therapy

“…[7][8][9][10] Some nanomaterials have been demonstrated as promising drug carriers for effective cancer treatment. [11][12][13][14][15] In particular, various nanocarriers including micelles [16,17] and gold nanorods [18] have been fabricated to carry cisplatin or its prodrugs to combat cisplatin resistance via enhanced cellular cisplatin internalization through endocytosis. [19] In order to achieve combined anticancer efficacy toward cisplatin resistant cancer cells, nanocarriers based combination therapy, integrating chemotherapeutic cisplatin with other conventional cancer therapeutic modalities, was also proposed, such as dual chemophotodynamic [20,21] and chemo-photothermal therapy.…”

Theranostic Liposomes with Hypoxia-Activated Prodrug to Effectively Destruct Hypoxic Tumors Post-Photodynamic Therapy

“…19–27 Unfortunately, the therapeutic outcome of PDT is severely affected by the tumor oxygenation states. 28–30 Recently, several different groups including us have uncovered that the therapeutic effect of PDT could be remarkably improved by relieving tumor hypoxia via different methods.…”