Gelatin–chlorin e6 conjugate for in vivo photodynamic therapy

BACKGROUND: Improving the water solubility of hydrophobic photosensitizer and increasing its accumulation in tumor tissue are essential for in vivo photodynamic therapy (PDT). Considering commercialization or clinical application in future, it will be promising to achieve these purposes by developing new agents with simple and non-toxic structure. RESULTS: We conjugated multiple chlorin e6 (Ce6) molecules to gelatin polymer, synthesizing two types of gelatin–Ce6 conjugates with different amounts of Ce6: gelatin–Ce6-2 and gelatin–Ce6-8. The resulting conjugates remained soluble in aqueous solutions for a longer time than hydrophobic Ce6. The conjugates could generate singlet oxygen and kill tumor cells upon laser irradiation. After intravenous injection into SCC-7 tumor-bearing mice, gelatin–Ce6-2 showed prolonged blood circulation and highly increased accumulation in tumor tissue as observed in real-time imaging in vivo. After laser irradiation, gelatin–Ce6-2 suppressed tumor growth completely and enabled improved PDT compared to free Ce6 and gelatin–Ce6-8. CONCLUSIONS: This work demonstrates that a simple structure based on photosensitizer and gelatin can highly improve water solubility and stability. Superior tumor tissue accumulation and increased therapeutic efficacy of gelatin–Ce6 during in vivo PDT showed its high potential for clinical application. [Image: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12951-019-0475-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.