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A Semiconducting Polymer Nano‐prodrug for Hypoxia‐Activated Photodynamic Cancer Therapy
Author(s) -
Cui Dong,
Huang Jiaguo,
Zhen Xu,
Li Jingchao,
Jiang Yuyan,
Pu Kanyi
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201814730
Subject(s) - photodynamic therapy , prodrug , singlet oxygen , tumor hypoxia , ethylene glycol , conjugated system , tumor microenvironment , chemistry , hypoxia (environmental) , cancer research , amphiphile , materials science , biophysics , nanotechnology , polymer , medicine , radiation therapy , biochemistry , oxygen , organic chemistry , copolymer , tumor cells , biology
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) holds great promise for cancer therapy; however, its efficacy is often compromised by tumor hypoxia. Herein, we report the synthesis of a semiconducting polymer nanoprodrug (SPNpd) that not only efficiently generates singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) under NIR photoirradiation but also specifically activates its chemotherapeutic action in hypoxic tumor microenvironment. SPNpd is self‐assembled from a amphiphilic polymer brush, which comprises a light‐responsive photodynamic backbone grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) and conjugated with a chemodrug through hypoxia‐cleavable linkers. The well‐defined and compact nanostructure of SPNpd (30 nm) enables accumulation in the tumor of living mice. Owing to these features, SPNpd exerts synergistic photodynamic and chemo‐therapy, and effectively inhibits tumor growth in a xenograft tumor mouse model. This study represents the first hypoxia‐activatable phototherapeutic polymeric prodrug system with a high potential for cancer therapy.