The recent discovery of the salutary effects of carbon monoxide (CO) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), ischemic perfusion damage, graft implantation, as well as its pro-apoptotic effects on hyper-proliferating cells has raised interest in delivering small doses of CO to biological targets under controlled conditions. In such attempts, photoactive metal carbonyl complexes (photoCORMs) have shown promise and several accounts of cancer cell eradication with light-triggered CO release from photoCORMs have been reported. CO releasing molecules (CORMs) and photoCORMs have been incorporated within biocompatible drug delivery vehicles such as carboxymethyl chitosan or mesoporous silica-based nanoparticles and the composite materials (photoCORs) have been successfully employed in controlled CO delivery to cancer cells to cause rapid CO-induced apoptosis. Fiber optic technology has also been utilized for remote delivery of CO to not easily accessible targets. Reports on all these therapeutic modalities for on-demand CO delivery to malignant targets in a highly localized fashion have opened up the possibility of phototherapy of cancer with the use of an unusual so-called “toxic” molecule. This review highlights the methodologies used in CO photochemotherapy reported so far along with analysis of their therapeutic outcomes, and possible improvements for better applicability.

一氧化碳（CO）对慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）的有益作用，缺血性灌注损伤，移植物植入及其对过度增殖细胞的促凋亡作用的最新发现引起了人们的兴趣，希望提供小剂量的在受控条件下将CO转化为生物目标。在这样的尝试中，光活性羰基金属配合物（photoCORMs）表现出了希望，并且已经报道了用光触发从photoCORMs中释放CO消除癌细胞的几种方法。已将CO释放分子（CORM）和photoCORM掺入生物相容性药物传递载体中，例如羧甲基壳聚糖或中孔二氧化硅基纳米颗粒，并且复合材料（photoCORs）已成功地用于控制CO向癌细胞的传递，从而引起快速的CO诱导细胞凋亡。光纤技术也已用于将CO远程输送到不易接近的目标。关于以高度局部化的方式将CO按需递送至恶性靶标的所有这些治疗方式的报道，开辟了使用不寻常的所谓“毒性”分子进行光疗的可能性。这篇评论重点介绍了迄今为止报道的用于CO光化学疗法的方法以及对其治疗效果的分析，