Abstract

As a new class of organic optical nanomaterials, semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) have the advantages of excellent optical properties, high photostability, facile surface functionalization, and are considered to possess good biocompatibility for biomedical applications. This review surveys recent progress made on the design and synthesis of SPNs for molecular imaging and cancer phototherapy. A variety of novel polymer design, chemical modification and nanoengineering strategies have been developed to precisely tune up optoelectronic properties of SPNs to enable fluorescence, chemiluminescence and photoacoustic (PA) imaging in living animals. With these imaging modalities, SPNs have been demonstrated not only to image tissues such as lymph nodes, vascular structure and tumors, but also to detect disease biomarkers such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) and protein sulfenic acid as well as physiological indexes such as pH and blood glucose concentration. The potentials of SPNs in cancer phototherapy including photodynamic and photothermal therapy are also highlighted with recent examples. Future efforts should further expand the use of SPNs in biomedical research and may even move them beyond pre-clinical studies.

中文翻译：

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用于分子成像和癌症光疗的半导体聚合物纳米粒子的最新进展

 抽象的

半导体聚合物纳米颗粒（SPNs）作为一类新型有机光学纳米材料，具有优异的光学性能、高光稳定性、易于表面功能化等优点，并被认为具有良好的生物相容性，适合生物医学应用。本综述调查了用于分子成像和癌症光疗的 SPN 的设计和合成的最新进展。人们已经开发出各种新颖的聚合物设计、化学改性和纳米工程策略来精确调整SPN的光电特性，从而在活体动物中实现荧光、化学发光和光声（PA）成像。通过这些成像方式，SPN 不仅可以对淋巴结、血管结构和肿瘤等组织进行成像，还可以检测活性氧 (ROS) 和蛋白次磺酸等疾病生物标志物以及 pH 等生理指标和血糖浓度。最近的例子也凸显了 SPN 在癌症光疗（包括光动力疗法和光热疗法）中的潜力。未来的努力应该进一步扩大 SPN 在生物医学研究中的使用，甚至可能使它们超越临床前研究。