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Updated: Nov 16, 2025
Photodynamic Therapy with Blended Conducting Polymer/Fullerene Nanoparticle Photosensitizers
Published on: October 28, 2015
Red light triggered photodynamic-chemo combination therapy using a prodrug caged by photosensitizer
Gan Xu1, Hong-Xia Zhang1, Xiao-Qiang Li1
1National & Local Joint Biomedical Engineering Research Center on Photodynamic Technologies & Key Laboratory of Molecule Synthesis and Function Discovery (Fujian Province University), College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350108, China.
Abstract:
Development of the drug with high therapeutic efficacy and low toxicity is crucial to cancer ablation. In this study, we have demonstrated a red light-responsive prodrug BDP-TK-CPT by connecting the chemotherapeutic agent camptothecin with a boron dipyrromethene (BDP)-based photosensitizer via a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-labile thioketal chain. Since camptothecin is modified by a BDP-based macrocycle at the active site, the formed prodrug displays an extremely low toxicity in dark. However, upon illumination by red light, it can efficiently generate ROS leading to cell death by photodynamic therapy. Meanwhile, the ROS generated can destroy thioketal group to release free camptothecin which further results in local cell death by chemotherapy. The combined antitumor effects of the prodrug have been verified in HepG2, EC109, and HeLa cancer cells and mice bearing H22 tumors. This study may provide an alternative strategy for stimuli-responsive combination treatment of tumors by conjugation of ROS-activatable prodrugs with photosensitizing agents.
