Bright Aggregation-Induced Emission Nanoparticles for Two-Photon Imaging and Localized Compound Therapy of Cancers

Ying Li; Rongbing Tang; Xiaoyan Liu; Junyi Gong; Zujin Zhao; Zonghai Sheng; Jiangjiang Zhang; Xuanyu Li; Guangle Niu; Ryan T K Kwok; Wenfu Zheng; Xingyu Jiang; Ben Zhong Tang

doi:10.1021/acsnano.0c05610

Bright Aggregation-Induced Emission Nanoparticles for Two-Photon Imaging and Localized Compound Therapy of Cancers

ACS Nano. 2020 Dec 22;14(12):16840-16853. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c05610. Epub 2020 Nov 16.

Authors

Ying Li¹, Rongbing Tang^{2

3}, Xiaoyan Liu^{4

3}, Junyi Gong⁵, Zujin Zhao⁶, Zonghai Sheng⁷, Jiangjiang Zhang⁴, Xuanyu Li⁴, Guangle Niu⁵, Ryan T K Kwok⁵, Wenfu Zheng³, Xingyu Jiang⁴, Ben Zhong Tang^{1

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Center for AIE Research, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518061, China.
² School of Stomatology, Lanzhou University, 199 Donggang Western Rd, Lanzhou 730000, China.
³ GBA Research Innovation Institute for Nanotechnology, CAS Key Lab for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for NanoScience and Technology, BeiYiTiao, Zhongguancun, Beijing 100190, China.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, No. 1088 Xueyuan Rd, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
⁷ Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Ultrasound Imaging and Therapy, CAS Key Laboratory of Health Informatics, Institute of Biomedical and Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.

PMID: 33197171
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c05610

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT), a noninvasive therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment, which always suffers from the low reactive oxygen species (ROS) yield of traditional organic dyes. Herein, we present lipid-encapsulated aggregation-induced emission nanoparticles (AIE NPs) that have a high quantum yield (23%) and a maximum two-photon absorption (TPA) cross-section of 560 GM irradiated by near-infrared light (800 nm). The AIE NPs can serve as imaging agents for spatiotemporal imaging of tumor tissues with a penetration depth up to 505 μm on mice melanoma model. Importantly, the AIE NPs can simultaneously generate singlet oxygen (¹O₂) and highly toxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH) upon irradiation with 800 nm irradiation for photodynamic tumor ablation. In addition, the AIE NPs can be effectively cleared from the mouse body after the imaging and therapy. This study provides a strategy to develop theranostic agents for cancer image-guided PDT with high brightness, superior photostability, and high biosafety.

Keywords: aggregation-induced emission; photodynamic therapy; two-photon fluorescence imaging.