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Mitochondria-targeted theranostic nanoparticles for optical sensing of oxygen, photodynamic cancer therapy, and assessment of therapeutic efficacy

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Abstract

We report on a novel kind of mitochondria-targeted theranostic nanoparticles (NPs). The NPs are doped with the oxygen-sensitive probe Pt(II)-porphyrins (PtTFPP) which exerts a dual role in acting as a diagnostic tool that can sense oxygen via quenching of luminescence, but also acts as an agent in photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer. In addition, it allows therapeutic efficacy to be assessed in-situ. Upon appropriate high-energy photoirradiation, the NPs generate singlet oxygen by energy transfer from triplet PtTFPP to ground state oxygen, and cell death is induced via PDT. Under low-energy light irradiation, in contrast, the NPs can be utilized to detect oxygen consumption rate via time-resolved luminescence measurements in order to study the efficacy of PDT. This is the first report where a single nanoagent is used to stimulate PDT and also to assess the efficacy of PDT. In our perception, the method provides a promising platform for testing anti-cancer drugs.

We report on a kind of mitochondria-targeted theranostic nanoparticles (NPs) doped with Pt(II)-porphyrins for oxygen sensing via quenching of luminescence, efficient photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer and quantitative assessment of therapeutic response in-situ.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under grant No.2014CC339900 and Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation under grant No.2016 M591126.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Work Safety Intelligent Monitoring, School of Electronic Engineering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Haidian District, Beijing, 100876, China

    Xiao-Hui Wang, Wei Yang, Zhao-Di Ren & Yuan-An Liu

  2. School of Science, Minzu University of China, Beijing, 100081, China

    Hong-Shang Peng

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  1. Xiao-Hui Wang
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  2. Hong-Shang Peng
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  3. Wei Yang
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  4. Zhao-Di Ren
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  5. Yuan-An Liu
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Correspondence to Xiao-Hui Wang.

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Wang, XH., Peng, HS., Yang, W. et al. Mitochondria-targeted theranostic nanoparticles for optical sensing of oxygen, photodynamic cancer therapy, and assessment of therapeutic efficacy. Microchim Acta 183, 2723–2731 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-016-1917-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-016-1917-1

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