The emerging field of photopharmacology is a promising chemobiological methodology for optical control of drug activities that could ultimately solve the off-target toxicity outside the disease location of many drugs for the treatment of a given pathology. The use of photolytic reactions looks very attractive for a light-activated drug release but requires to develop photolytic reactions sensitive to red or near-infrared light excitation for better tissue penetration. This review will present the concepts of triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion-based photolysis and their recent in vivo applications for light-induced drug delivery using photoactivatable nanoparticles.
Keywords: drug delivery; nanomedicine; photopharmacology; triplet‐triplet annihilation upconversion; uncaging.
© 2024 The Authors. Advanced Healthcare Materials published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.