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Updated: May 24, 2026
Photodynamic Therapy with Blended Conducting Polymer/Fullerene Nanoparticle Photosensitizers
Published on: October 28, 2015
Dual-Responsive hollow mesoporous organosilicon nanocarriers for photodynamic therapy
Caiqin Hao1, Yutong Shao1, Jiarui Tian1
1Institute of Molecular Sciences and Engineering, Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Science. Shandong University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, PR China.
Hypothesis:
The nano-delivery platform, -SS-HMONs@MB@MnO2 nanoparticles (SMM NPs) loaded with methylene blue (MB) as photosensitizer have excellent photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect. The disulfide bond and MnO2 give the shell redox-responsive properties. SMM NPs consume glutathione (GSH) in tumor cells, reducing the scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by GSH and enhancing the PDT effect of MB.
Experiments:
The GSH dual-responsive nano-delivery platform, was designed and constructed by using disulfide-doped hollow mesoporous organosilicon nanoparticles (-SS-HMONs) as intermediate responsive layer, loaded with MB as photosensitizer and coated with MnO2 as shells. The MB photosensitizer release and GSH response were characterized. The PDT effect of nanoparticles was evaluated.
Findings:
The SMM NPs were uniform in size and well dispersed. The nanoparticles could react with GSH, leading to the decomposition of MnO2 shells and the breakage of disulfide bonds in -SS-HMONs, resulted in the release of MB photosensitizer. The cell experiment showed that SMM NPs had good ROS generating ability and PDT effect after being sucked by tumor cells, which could effectively kill tumor cells. However, in vivo experiments demonstrated that SMM NPs showed slight inhibition on tumor growth. The actual effect in animals was different from the effect in cells.
