Photothermal therapy (PTT) is one of recently emerging anticancer treatment modalities that involve the use of laser and photosensitizers. To fully explore the therapeutic potential of PTT, it is critical to deliver photosensitizers to tumors specifically. Maltodextrin is a hydrophilic polysaccharide consisting of D-glucose units and has been used as a pharmaceutical excipient because of its excellent biocompatibility. IR820 is a derivative of indocyanine green (ICG), a clinically used imaging agent and has potential as a photosensitizer for PTT. However, the clinical translation of IR820 has been limited by its lack of cancer targeting ability and poor stability in physiological environments. In this study, we hypothesized that IR820-conjugated maltodextrin (MDir) preferentially accumulates in tumors and serves as photothermal agents. Combination of MDir and near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation significantly increased the temperature, leading to photothermal-mediated apoptosis of cancer cells. In a mouse xenograft models, MDir preferentially accumulated in tumors and induced almost complete thermal ablation of tumors upon NIR laser irradiation. Based on its tumor targeting ability, photothermal conversion efficiency and excellent biocompatibility, we anticipate that MDir holds great translational potential as a fluorescence imaging-guided photothermal agent for cancer treatment.

光热疗法（PTT）是最近出现的抗癌治疗方法之一，涉及使用激光和光敏剂。为了充分探索PTT的治疗潜力，至关重要的是将光敏剂特异性地递送至肿瘤。麦芽糊精是由D组成的亲水性多糖-葡萄糖单元，由于其优异的生物相容性而被用作药物赋形剂。IR820是临床上使用的成像剂吲哚菁绿（ICG）的衍生物，并具有作为PTT的光敏剂的潜力。然而，IR820的临床翻译因其缺乏靶向癌症的能力以及在生理环境中的稳定性差而受到限制。在这项研究中，我们假设结合IR820的麦芽糖糊精（MDir）优先在肿瘤中蓄积并充当光热剂。MDir和近红外（NIR）激光照射的结合显着提高了温度，导致光热介导的癌细胞凋亡。在小鼠异种移植模型中，MDir优先聚集在肿瘤中，并在NIR激光照射下诱导肿瘤几乎完全热消融。