Mitochondria-Targeting Oxygen-Sufficient Perfluorocarbon Nanoparticles for Imaging-Guided Tumor Phototherapy

BACKGROUND: Although photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamics therapy (PDT) have both made excellent progress in tumor therapy, the effectiveness of using PTT or PDT alone is dissatisfactory due to the limitations of the penetration depth in PTT and the hypoxic microenvironment of tumors for PDT. Combination phototherapy has currently become a burgeoning cancer treatment. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In this work, a mitochondria-targeting liquid perfluorocarbon (PFC)-based oxygen delivery system was developed for the synergistic PDT/photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer through image guiding. RESULTS: Importantly, these nanoparticles (NPs) can effectively and accurately accumulate in the target tumor via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. CONCLUSION: This approach offers a novel technique to achieve outstanding antitumor efficacy by an unprecedented design with tumor mitochondria targeting, oxygen delivery, and synergistic PDT/PTT with dual-imaging guidance.