Effective clinical practice of precise photodynamic therapy (PDT) is severely impeded by the inherent drawbacks and aggregation propensity of conventional photosensitizers. An all-in-one approach is highly desired to optimize structural features, photophysical properties, and pharmacokinetic behaviors of photosensitizers. Herein, we have fabricated mesoporous boron dipyrromethene-bridged coordination polymer nanophotosensitizers (BCP-NPs) for high-performance PDT via a unique solvent-assisted assembly strategy. Distinctive photophysical and structural characteristics of BCP-NPs confer enhanced photodynamic activities, together with high cellular uptake and ultrahigh stability. Moreover, BCP-NPs showed excellent tumor accumulation and prolonged tumor retention, achieving eradication of the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) model under low-power-density LED irradiation. This work has provided a valuable paradigm for the construction of mesoporous photoactive nanomaterials for biophotonic applications.
Keywords: amorphous coordination polymer; mesopore; nanophotosensitizer; near-infrared absorption; photodynamic therapy; tumor ablation.