Hypoxia Induced by Upconversion-Based Photodynamic Therapy: Towards Highly Effective Synergistic Bioreductive Therapy in Tumors

  • Yanyan Liu
  • , Yong Liu
  • , Wenbo Bu*
  • , Chao Cheng
  • , Changjing Zuo
  • , Qingfeng Xiao
  • , Yong Sun
  • , Dalong Ni
  • , Chen Zhang
  • , Jianan Liu
  • , Jianlin Shi
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

416 Scopus citations

Abstract

Local hypoxia in tumors is an undesirable consequence of photodynamic therapy (PDT), which will lead to greatly reduced effectiveness of this therapy. Bioreductive pro-drugs that can be activated at low-oxygen conditions will be highly cytotoxic under hypoxia in tumors. Based on this principle, double silica-shelled upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) nanostructure capable of co-delivering photosensitizer (PS) molecules and a bioreductive pro-drug (tirapazamine, TPZ) were designed (TPZ-UC/PS), with which a synergetic tumor therapeutic effect has been achieved first by UC-based (UC-) PDT under normal oxygen environment, immediately followed by the induced cytotoxicity of activated TPZ when oxygen is depleted by UC-PDT. Treatment with TPZ-UC/PS plus NIR laser resulted in a remarkably suppressed tumor growth as compared to UC-PDT alone, implying that the delivered TPZ has a profound effect on treatment outcomes for the much-enhanced cytotoxicity of TPZ under PDT-induced hypoxia.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8105-8109
Number of pages5
JournalAngewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume54
Issue number28
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • bioreductive pro-drugs
  • hypoxia
  • photodynamic therapy
  • synergetic therapy
  • upconversion nanoparticles

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