Nanomedicine-Based Strategies Assisting Photodynamic Therapy for Hypoxic Tumors: State-of-the-Art Approaches and Emerging Trends

Chun-Yan Shih; Pei-Ting Wang; Wu-Chou Su; Hsisheng Teng; Wei-Lun Huang

doi:10.3390/biomedicines9020137

Nanomedicine-Based Strategies Assisting Photodynamic Therapy for Hypoxic Tumors: State-of-the-Art Approaches and Emerging Trends

Biomedicines. 2021 Feb 1;9(2):137. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9020137.

Authors

Chun-Yan Shih¹, Pei-Ting Wang¹, Wu-Chou Su^{2

3}, Hsisheng Teng^{1

2

4}, Wei-Lun Huang^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.
² Center of Applied Nanomedicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.
³ Department of Oncology, College of Medicine and Hospital, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.
⁴ Hierarchical Green-Energy Materials (Hi-GEM) Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.

Abstract

Since the first clinical cancer treatment in 1978, photodynamic therapy (PDT) technologies have been largely improved and approved for clinical usage in various cancers. Due to the oxygen-dependent nature, the application of PDT is still limited by hypoxia in tumor tissues. Thus, the development of effective strategies for manipulating hypoxia and improving the effectiveness of PDT is one of the most important area in PDT field. Recently, emerging nanotechnology has benefitted progress in many areas, including PDT. In this review, after briefly introducing the mechanisms of PDT and hypoxia, as well as basic knowledge about nanomedicines, we will discuss the state of the art of nanomedicine-based approaches for assisting PDT for treating hypoxic tumors, mainly based on oxygen replenishing strategies and the oxygen dependency diminishing strategies. Among these strategies, we will emphasize emerging trends about the use of nanoscale metal-organic framework (nMOF) materials and the combination of PDT with immunotherapy. We further discuss future perspectives and challenges associated with these trends in both the aspects of mechanism and clinical translation.

Keywords: hypoxia; immunotherapy; nanomedicine; nanoscale metal–organic frameworks; photodynamic therapy.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

D109-H7001/The Center of Applied Nanomedicine, National Cheng Kung University from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.