"Dual lock-and-key" triggered and endoplasmic reticulum targeting nanophotosensitizers for activatable Type-I photodynamic and photothermal therapies.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a critical modality in cancer treatment with the merits of non-invasiveness, spatiotemporal control, and minimal drug resistance. However, the clinical application of PDT is often hindered by inherent limitations, including side effects caused by the "always on" state of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and low ROS generation efficiency in hypoxic tumors. To overcome these limitations, we developed a tumor microenvironment (TME) "dual lock-and-key" triggered and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) targeting nanophotosensitizer for fluorescence imaging-guided activatable Type-I PDT and photothermal therapy (PTT).

A supramolecular nanoplatform for imaging-guided phototherapies hypoxia tumour microenvironment remodeling.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as an invasive and promising antitumour treatment, however, the hypoxia in deep tumour tissues and the poor water-solubility of photosensitizers as bottlenecks greatly hinder PDT efficiency. Herein, a tumour microenvironment (TME) activated supramolecular nanoplatform consisting of the pillar[5]arene-based amphiphilic polymer POPD, the phototherapeutic agent Cy7-CN, respiratory medication atovaquone (ATO) and chemotherapeutic drug pyridinyl camptothecin (CPT-Py) was constructed for imaging-guided hypoxia-ameliorated phototherapies. Owing to host-guest interaction, the photochemical and photophysical properties of cyanine were improved exceedingly due to the suppression of π-π stacking.