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Cyanobacteria-based near-infrared light-excited self-supplying oxygen system for enhanced photodynamic therapy of hypoxic tumors

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Abstract

Tumor hypoxia has been considered to induce tumor cell resistance to radiotherapy and anticancer chemotherapy, as well as predisposing for increased tumor metastases. Therefore, strategies for the eradication of the hypoxic tumor are highly desirable. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new technique that can be used to treat tumors using laser irradiation to photochemically activate a photosensitizer. Compared to traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy has many advantages, such as good selectivity, low toxicity, and less trauma and resistance. However, PDT is oxygen-dependent, and the lack of oxygen in hypoxic tumors renders photodynamic therapy ineffective. Cyanobacteria, the earliest photosynthetic oxygen-generating organisms, can utilize water as an electron donor to reduce CO2 into organic carbon compounds along with continuously releasing oxygen under sunlight. Inspired by this, herein, cyanobacteria were used as a living carrier of photosensitizer conjugated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) to construct a self-supplying oxygen PDT system. Improvement in the PDT efficiency for hypoxic tumors can be achieved as a result of in situ oxygen production by cyanobacteria under near-infrared (NIR) light using UCNP as a light harvesting antenna. A successful demonstration of this concept would be of great significance and could open the door to a new generation of carrier systems in the field of hypoxia-targeted drug transport platforms.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21977024, 21601046, and 31971304). Advanced Talents Incubation Program of the Hebei University (No. 801260201020). Funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M650558), Beijing Postdoctoral Research Foundation and Beijing Chaoyang District Postdoctoral Research Fundation. We are grateful to Medical Comprehensive Experimental Center of Hebei University for the animal experiment.

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Author notes

  1. Yinghua Zhang and Huifang Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry & Environmental Science, Analytical Chemistry Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, Chemical Biology Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China

    Yinghua Zhang, Xinyue Dai, Hang Li, Jinchao Zhang & Zhenhua Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of Ministry of Education, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China

    Yinghua Zhang, Huifang Liu, Xinyue Dai, Hang Li, Xiaohan Zhou, Jinchao Zhang, Xing-Jie Liang & Zhenhua Li

  3. College of Pharmaceutical Science, Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Quality Control of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China

    Huifang Liu & Xing-Jie Liang

  4. Beijing Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited, Beijing, 100101, China

    Shizhu Chen

  5. The National Institutes of Pharmaceutical R&D Co., Ltd., China Resources Pharmaceutical Group Limited, Beijing, 102206, China

    Shizhu Chen

  6. CAS Key Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Xing-Jie Liang

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  1. Yinghua Zhang
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  2. Huifang Liu
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  4. Hang Li
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  7. Jinchao Zhang
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  9. Zhenhua Li
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Correspondence to Jinchao Zhang or Zhenhua Li.

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12274_2020_3094_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Cyanobacteria-based near-infrared light-excited self-supplying oxygen system for enhanced photodynamic therapy of hypoxic tumors

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Zhang, Y., Liu, H., Dai, X. et al. Cyanobacteria-based near-infrared light-excited self-supplying oxygen system for enhanced photodynamic therapy of hypoxic tumors. Nano Res. 14, 667–673 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3094-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3094-0

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