Rigidity Bridging Flexibility to Harmonize Three Excited‐State Deactivation Pathways for NIR‐II‐Fluorescent‐Imaging‐Guided Phototherapy

Abstract

Small organic phototherapeutic molecules of the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window (1000-1700 nm) serve as promising candidates for theranostics. However, developing such versatile agents for fluorescence-guided photodynamic/photothermal therapy remains a demanding task stirred by competitive energy dissipation pathways, including radiative decay, internal conversion, and intersystem crossing. To the best of current knowledge, the current paradigm for addressing the issue has deliberately approached the optimum balance among three deactivation processes through offsetting from each other, possibly leading to a comprehensively compromised theranostic efficacy. Few reports aim to modulate the three deactivation pathways excluding sacrificing any one of them. Herein, a molecular design strategy to construct a phototherapeutic organic fluorophore CCNU-1060, armed with NIR-II luorescence-guided phototherapeutic properties, is rationally developed. With a flexible motor, tetraphenylethene, bridged to the rigidified coplanar core boron-azadipyrromethene, the desired CCNU-1060 is subsequently encapsulated into an amphiphilic matrix to form CCNU-1060 nanoparticles (NPs), which match or transcend its precursor NJ-1060 NPs in the three energy dissipation processes. CCNU-1060 NPs are utilized to realize high-spatial vessel imaging and effective NIR-II fluorescence-guided phototherapeutic tumor ablation. This study unlocks a viewpoint of molecular engineering that simultaneously regulates multiple energy dissipation pathways for the construction of versatile phototherapy agents.

Ho3+-Doped Carbon Dot/Gelatin Nanoparticles for pH-Responsive Anticancer Drug Delivery and Intracellular Cu2+ Ion Sensing

“…Cellular uptake of any nanoprobe is also crucial before conducting other biological studies. The combination of therapeutic agents with the fluorescent nanoprobe is considered an optimal therapeutic system for self-tracking of their distribution in the living cell, which offers supervision for precise drug delivery and sensing. , Ultrasmall HoCDGNPs with considerable photostability and biocompatibility have all the potential to amplify cellular uptake. Therefore, HeLa cells and MDCK cell lines were considered model cells for the in vitro cellular uptake and bioimaging study.…”

The Pursuit of Shortwave Infrared-Emitting Nanoparticles with Bright Fluorescence through Molecular Design and Excited-State Engineering of Molecular Aggregates

“…TPE is a bulky substituent with a propeller-like shape; thus, the attachment of TPEs to the PBI core strongly distorts the π–π stacking between the PBI units that reduce ACQ. On the basis of a consecutive incorporation of common rotors (triphenylamine (TPA), TPE) as electron-donating groups that are directly conjugated to the acceptor unit or introduced to the donor groups, a number of new D-A-D dyes have been developed. ,,− Furthermore, by a coprecipitation with host polymers, bright and stable AIE nanoparticles have successfully been developed.…”

One-Step Fabrication of Multifunctional PLGA-HMME-DTX@MnO2 Nanoparticles for Enhanced Chemo-Sonodynamic Antitumor Treatment

“…However, most strategies to fabricate polymer-inorganic composite nanosystems include solution precipitation, the interfacial instabilities of emulsion droplets, and thermal processing, among others. 33 , 34 These strategies involve multiple steps, are complicated, and unscalable. 35 , 36 In this study, an efficient one-step method, termed flash nanoprecipitation (FNP), was used to synergistically deposit the hybrid metal MnO 2 onto the core of micelles formed from the polymer PLGA, carrying the chemotherapeutic DTX and sonosensitizer HMME (PLGA-HMME-DTX@MnO 2 ).…”