A Theranostic Nanoprobe for Hypoxia Imaging and Photodynamic Tumor Therapy

Jing Hao Fan; Gui Ling Fan; Ping Yuan; Fu An Deng; Ling Shan Liu; Xiang Zhou; Xi Yong Yu; Hong Cheng; Shi Ying Li

doi:10.3389/fchem.2019.00868

A Theranostic Nanoprobe for Hypoxia Imaging and Photodynamic Tumor Therapy

Front Chem. 2019 Dec 20:7:868. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00868. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Jing Hao Fan¹, Gui Ling Fan¹, Ping Yuan¹, Fu An Deng¹, Ling Shan Liu², Xiang Zhou², Xi Yong Yu¹, Hong Cheng², Shi Ying Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Molecular Target & Clinical Pharmacology and The State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences & The Fifth Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Construction and Detection in Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials Research Center, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Hypoxia is a common feature for most malignant tumors, which was also closely related to the oxygen-dependent photodynamic therapy. Based on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), a smart nanoprobe (designated as H-Probe) was designed in this paper for hypoxia imaging and photodynamic tumor therapy. Due to the FRET process, H-Probe could respond to hypoxia with a significant fluorescence recovery. Moreover, abundant in vitro investigations demonstrated that the photosensitizer of PpIX in H-Probe could generate large amounts of singlet oxygen to kill cancer cells in the presence of oxygen and light with appropriate wavelength. Also, intravenously injected H-Probe with light irradiation achieved an effective tumor inhibition in vivo with a reduced side effect. This original strategy of integrating hypoxia imaging and tumor therapy in one nanoplatform would promote the development of theranostic nanoplatform for tumor precision therapy.

Keywords: FRET; hypoxia; nanoprobe; photodynamic therapy; theranostic.