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Updated: Aug 11, 2025
One Minute, Sub-One-Watt Photothermal Tumor Ablation Using Porphysomes, Intrinsic Multifunctional Nanovesicles
Published on: September 17, 2013
A DNA-engineered metal-organic-framework nanocarrier as a general platform for activatable photodynamic cancer cell
Yahui Ma1, Renzeng Chen1, Xianheng Chen1
1Frontiers Science Centre for High Energy Material, Advanced Technology Research Institute (Jinan), Key Laboratory of Cluster Science (Ministry of Education), Beijing Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic/Electrophotonic Conversion Materials, Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, School of Medical Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology Beijing 100081 P. R. China ybwang@bit.edu.cn bowang@bit.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Activatable photodynamic cancer cell ablation constitutes a promising approach to performing highly effective photodynamic therapy (PDT) with mitigated phototoxicity. Regretfully, so far strategies to fabricate activatable PDT agents are only applicable to a limited number of photosensitizers (PSs). Herein, an activatable photodynamic cancer cell ablation platform that can be adopted for versatile PSs is presented. Thereinto, by engineering an iron(iii) carboxylate-based metal-organic framework (MOF), MIL-101(Fe), with DNA grafted after PS loading, both hydrophilic and hydrophobic PSs can undergo negligible unspecific leakage and significant suppression of photosensitization during delivery. Following the reaction between MIL-101 and H2O2 whose level is greatly increased inside the tumor, MIL-101 is selectively degraded to release the loaded PDT agents and recover their photosensitization, controllably killing cancer cells upon H2O2 activation. Such a strategy assisted by a DNA-functionalized MOF significantly expands the varieties of PSs applicable for activatable PDT.
