NIR light responsive nanoplatforms hold great promise for on-demand drug release in precision cancer medicine. However, currently available systems utilize "always-on" photothermal transducers that lack target specificity, and thus inaccurately differentiate tumors from normal tissues. Developed here is a theranostic nanoplatform featuring H2 S-mediated in situ production of NIR photothermal agents for imaging-guided and photocontrolled drug release. The system targets H2 S-rich cancers. This nanoplatform shows H2 S-activatable NIR-II emission and NIR light controllable release of the drug Camptothecin-11. Upon administering the system to HCT116 tumor-bearing mice, the tumor is greatly suppressed with minimal side effects, arising from the synergy of the cancer-specific and NIR light activated therapy. This theranostic nanoplatform thus sheds light on precision medicine with guidance through NIR-II imaging.
Keywords: cancer; drug delivery; fluorescence; nanostructures; theranostics.
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