Journal of Nanobiotechnology (Nov 2021)

One-photon red light-triggered disassembly of small-molecule nanoparticles for drug delivery

  • Kaiqi Long,
  • Han Han,
  • Weirong Kang,
  • Wen Lv,
  • Lang Wang,
  • Yufeng Wang,
  • Liang Ge,
  • Weiping Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12951-021-01103-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Background Photoresponsive drug delivery can achieve spatiotemporal control of drug accumulation at desired sites. Long-wavelength light is preferable owing to its deep tissue penetration and low toxicity. One-photon upconversion-like photolysis via triplet–triplet energy transfer (TTET) between photosensitizer and photoresponsive group enables the use of long-wavelength light to activate short-wavelength light-responsive groups. However, such process requires oxygen-free environment to achieve efficient photolysis due to the oxygen quenching of triplet excited states. Results Herein, we report a strategy that uses red light to trigger disassembly of small-molecule nanoparticles by one-photon upconversion-like photolysis for cancer therapy. A photocleavable trigonal molecule, BTAEA, self-assembled into nanoparticles and enclosed photosensitizer, PtTPBP. Such nanoparticles protected TTET-based photolysis from oxygen quenching in normoxia aqueous solutions, resulting in efficient red light-triggered BTAEA cleavage, dissociation of nanoparticles and subsequent cargo release. With paclitaxel as the model drug, the red light-triggered drug release system demonstrated promising anti-tumor efficacy both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions This study provides a practical reference for constructing photoresponsive nanocarriers based on the one-photon upconversion-like photolysis. Graphical Abstract

Keywords