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Promoted intramolecular photoinduced-electron transfer for multi-mode imaging-guided cancer photothermal therapy

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Abstract

To develop smart and efficient near-infrared (NIR) organic dyes for photothermal cancer therapy is of great challenge. Herein, a pH-sensitive NIR dye BTN with donor–acceptor–donor scaffold has been synthesized. Two periphery electron-donating dimethylamine groups in BTN can not only promote the intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer (PET), but also bind protons to transform into electron-deficient ammonium cation for enhanced intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) under acidic circumstance. Through enveloping with amphiphilic polymeric 1,2-distearoyl-ras-glycerol-3-phosphatidyl ethanolamine-N-polyethyleneglycol-2000 (DSPE-mPEG2000), BTN nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated with robust NIR absorption covering 600–900 nm, excellent photothermal conversion efficiency (43.2%), and good photostability. Additionally, BTN NPs can selectively target lysosomes. Through tailing intravenous injection into tumor-bearing nude mice, BTN NPs demonstrate outstanding photoacoustic/photothermal/fluorescence imaging-guided photothermal therapy for tumor ablation.

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摘要

开发用于癌症光热治疗的智能、高效型近红外 (NIR) 有机染料至关重要。本文合成了具有供体-受体-供体结构的pH敏感型NIR染料BTN, 其中两侧的给电子性二甲胺基团不仅可以促进分子内光致电子转移 (PET), 而且可以结合质子转化为吸电子性铵根阳离子, 在酸性条件下增强分子内电荷转移 (ICT)。通过两亲性聚合物DSPE-mPEG2000包裹, 制备了在600-900 nm范围内吸收能力强的BTN纳米颗粒 (NPs), 其光热转换性能优异 (43.2%)、光稳定性好。通过尾静脉注射到荷瘤裸鼠体内, BTN NPs表现出优异的光声/光热/荧光成像引导的光热治疗性能。

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Nos. BK20200092 and BK20200710).

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  1. Xin-Yu Qu and Ying Hong have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics and Institute of Advanced Materials, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, China

    Xin-Yu Qu, Ying Hong, Han Cai, Xu Sun, Qing Shen, Dong-Liang Yang, Xiao-Chen Dong & Jin-Jun Shao

  2. Department of Oncology, the Affiliated Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital of Qingdao University, Yantai, 264000, China

    Ai-Hong Jiao

  3. School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Xiao-Chen Dong

  4. School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637459, Singapore

    Peng Chen

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  1. Xin-Yu Qu
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  3. Han Cai
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Correspondence to Ai-Hong Jiao or Jin-Jun Shao.

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Qu, XY., Hong, Y., Cai, H. et al. Promoted intramolecular photoinduced-electron transfer for multi-mode imaging-guided cancer photothermal therapy. Rare Met. 41, 56–66 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-021-01795-0

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