As a highly biocompatible NIR dye, indocyanine green (ICG) has been widely explored for cancer treatment due to its various energy level transition pathways upon NIR light excitation simultaneously, which leads to different theranostic effects (eg. Photoacoustic (PA) and fluorescence imaging (FL), photodynamic and photothermal therapy (PDT&PTT)). However, the theranostic efficiency of ICG is restricted intrinsically, owing to the competitive relationship of its co-existing imaging and therapeutic effect. Moreover, the extrinsic hypoxia nature of tumor further limits its therapeutic effect, especially for the oxygen-dependent PDT. Herein, perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB), another biocompatible chemical, was integrated with ICG in a nanoliposome structure via a facile two-step emulsion method. Such an ICG&PFOB co-loaded nanoliposomes (LIP-PFOB-ICG) realized computed tomography (CT) contrast imaging in vivo, providing better anatomical information of tumor in comparison to ICG enabled PA and FL imaging. More importantly, LIP-PFOB-ICG inhibited MDA-MB-231 tumor growth completely via intravenous injection through enhanced PDT&PTT synergistic therapy due to the excellent oxygen carrying ability of PFOB, which effectively attenuated tumor hypoxia, improved the efficiency of collisional energy transfer between ICG and oxygen and reduced the expression of heat shock protein (HSP). As expected, the introduction of PFOB within nanoliposomes with ICG has augmented the theranostic effect of ICG comprehensively, which makes this simple biocompatible liposome-based nanoagent a potential candidate for clinical imaging guided phototherapy of cancer.

作为一种高度生物相容性的NIR染料，吲哚菁绿（ICG）由于在NIR光激发的同时具有多种能级跃迁途径，因此被广泛用于癌症治疗，从而导致不同的治疗效果（例如光声（PA）和荧光成像（ FL），光动力疗法和光热疗法（PDT＆PTT））。然而，由于ICG并存的成像和治疗效果之间存在竞争关系，ICG的治疗效率受到内在限制。此外，肿瘤的外在性缺氧性质进一步限制了其治疗效果，尤其是对于氧依赖性PDT。在此，另一种生物相容性化学物质全氟辛基溴（PFOB）与ICG通过纳米脂质体结构整合一种简便的两步乳液法。这样的ICG＆PFOB纳米负载脂质体（LIP-PFOB-ICG）在体内实现了计算机断层扫描（CT）对比成像，与启用ICG的PA和FL成像相比，可提供更好的肿瘤解剖信息。更重要的是，LIP-PFOB-ICG通过以下方式完全抑制MDA-MB-231肿瘤的生长PFOB具有出色的携氧能力，可通过增强的PDT和PTT协同疗法进行静脉注射，可有效减轻肿瘤缺氧，提高ICG与氧气之间的碰撞能量转移效率，并降低热休克蛋白（HSP）的表达。如预期的那样，在带有ICG的纳米脂质体中引入PFOB已全面增强了ICG的治疗作用，这使这种简单的基于生物相容性脂质体的纳米剂成为临床临床指导的癌症光疗的潜在候选者。