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Updated: Nov 22, 2025
An Integrated System to Remotely Trigger Intracellular Signal Transduction by Upconversion Nanoparticle-mediated Kinase Photoactivation
Published on: August 30, 2017
When a Semiconductor Utilized as an NIR Laser-Responsive Photodynamic/Photothermal Theranostic Agent Integrates with
Ruichan Lv1, Yanxing Wang1, Jun Liu1
1Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging, Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China.
Abstract:
Photoactive theranostics including photodynamic therapy (PDT) hace aroused an intensive interest that combines medical diagnostics with treatment under a single irradiation laser. However, the conventional organic PDT agents usually suffer from aggregation caused by the quenching effect. In this research, we designed a core-shell-shell (CSS) UCNPs with NaGdF4 as the host, and the UCNPs could emit higher blue/green light by the energy transfer processes among Nd/Yb/Tm/Gd/Tb under 808 nm laser. When the CSS UCNPs were combined with the MnO2 semiconductor as the energy acceptor, CSS@Mn could be utilized as an effective PDT agent under a NIR laser. The temperature also increased more than 12.2 °C under the 808 nm laser, indicating the potential of synergistic photothermal therapy (PTT) and PDT. Interestingly, cells with small amounts of H2O2 could be responsive to the CSS@Mn platform. The antitumor effect was proved by the in vitro and in vivo experiments. Also, the biocompatibility, biodistribution, and excretion pathway were detected and revealed by the H&E stained pathological section and photoacoustic (PA) images. That means this platform could be potentially used as antitumor PDT/PTT agents.
