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NIR-triggered NO production combined with photodynamic therapy for tumor treatment

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: • An anti-tumour model combining photodynamic therapy (PDT) with NO gas therapy has been constructed. • This anti-tumour platform is based on the upconversion nanoparticles, which are responsive to NIR light with deep tissue penetration. • L-arginine has good biocompatibility and can produce a large amount of NO molecules when catalysed by ROS. • Our technique provides good biocompatibility and excellent anti-tumour efficacy. Photodynamic therapy (PDT), as one of the most promising cancer therapy methods, is still limited by several drawbacks, such as tissue hypoxia and shallow light penetration of blue-violet light (200–450 nm), and red light (750 nm) is more penetrating to tissues than blue-violet light, but still lower than near-red light (750–1350 nm). Therefore, we proposed a synergistic therapy system by combining the near-infrared light-triggered PDT with nitric oxide (NO)-based gas therapy to enhance the anti-tumor effects. Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) were loaded with the photosensitizers of ZnPc and the NO donors of l-arginine (L-Arg) to obtain the nanocomposites of UCN@mSiO 2 @ZnPc@L-Arg. Under 980 nm laser irradiation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) could be produced for PDT and react with l-Arg to produce NO, which is previously reported to have a greater killing effect on tumor cells than ROS and also plays an important role in promoting PDT in our study. Both the in vitro and in vivo tests demonstrated that the combined therapy of PDT with NO therapy could enhance the tumor killing effect significantly compared with the unique application of PDT. The UCNPs-based nanocomposites are expected to be widely used in biomedicine for tumor inhibition.
DOI: 10.1016/j.pdpdt.2024.104241
Institution: Shanghai University
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,450
OpenAlex ID: W4401794116
FWCI: 0.523
Cites: 50
Cited by: 5
Related to: 10