Fluorescence-imaging-guided photodynamic therapy has emerged as a promising protocol for cancer theranostics. However, facile preparation of such a theranostic material for simultaneously achieving bright emission with long wavelength, high-performance reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and good targeting-specificity of cancer cells, is highly desirable but remains challenging. In this study, a novel type of far-red/near-infrared-emissive fluorescent molecules with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics is synthesized through a few steps reaction. These AIE luminogens (AIEgens) possess simple structures, excellent photostabilities, large Stokes shifts, bright emission, and good biocompatibilities. Meanwhile, their ROS generation is extremely efficient with up to 90.7% of ROS quantum yield, which is far superior to that of some popularly used photosensitizers. Importantly, these AIEgens are able to selectively target and ablate cancer cells over normal cells without the aid of any extra targeting ligands. Rather than using laser light, one of the presented AIEgens (MeTTPy) shows a remarkable tumor-targeting photodynamic therapeutic effect by using an ultralow-power lamp light (18 mW cm ). This study thus not only extends the applications scope of AIEgens, but also offers useful insights into designing a new generation of cancer theranostics.

PF, TP, and GP are all effective regimens as the first-line chemotherapy for metastatic NPC, which can be well tolerated. Over four cycles of chemotherapy are recommended under no contraindication. Patients should transfer to the second-line regimen after the treatment failure of the first-line chemotherapy.

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Our previous studies had revealed that the dysregulation of manganese superoxide dismutase (SOD2) expression was a frequent event in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) and may be associated with enhanced metastatic potential. To further evaluate the mechanism of SOD2-mediated metastasis in TSCC, TSCC cell lines with different metastatic potential (i.e., the highly metastatic UM1 line and the UM2 line, which displays fewer metastases) were used. Compared to UM2 cells, UM1 cells exhibited significantly higher SOD2 activity and intracellular H2O2, higher protein levels of Snail, MMP-1 and pERK1/2, lower protein levels of E-cadtherin, and not difference of catalase activity. Upon knockdown of SOD2 by RNA interference, UM1 cells displayed significantly reduced migration and invasion abilities, reduced activities of SOD2, lower intracellular H2O2, decreased protein levels of Snail, MMP-1 and pERK1/2, and increased protein levels of E-cadtherin. Migration and invasion ability of UM2 and SOD2 shRNA-transfected UM1 cells were enhanced by H2O2 treatment and accompanied by increased protein levels of Snail, MMP-1 and pERK1/2, and decreased protein levels of E-cadtherin. Moreover the migration and invasion ability of UM1 cells were decreased after catalase treatment. Thus, we conclude that the SOD2-dependent production of H2O2 contributes to both the migration and invasion of TSCC via the Snail signaling pathway through increased Snail, MMP-1 and pERK1/2 protein levels, and the repression of the E-cadtherin protein.

The incorporation of intensive light absorbing porphyrins macrocycles with biocompatible nanoparticles would lead to new nanomaterials with multiple imaging and therapeutic modalities. Herein, a facile synthetic strategy has been applied to prepare porphyrin-implanted carbon nanodots (PNDs) by partial and selective pyrolysis of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis­(4-aminophenyl)­porphyrin (TAPP) and citric acid (CA) at an appropriate temperature. As-prepared PNDs exhibit not only the excellent stability and biocompatibility characteristic of carbon nanodots but also the unique properties of porphyrin macrocycle such as strong UV–visible and near-infrared absorption, specifically, high photodynamic therapy efficiency. More importantly, the PNDs with near-infrared absorption could act as a contrast agent for photoacoustic molecular imaging with deep tissue penetration and fine spatial resolution. The Cetuximab-conjugated porphyrin-based carbon nanodots (C225-PNDs) have been further prepared to precisely target the cancer cells (HCC827 and MDA-MB-231 cells) with overexpression of EGFR, leading to highly efficient photodynamic therapy upon two-photo excitation at 800 nm. A complete ablation of tumor together with an enhanced photoacoustic contrast ability for C225-PNDs have been further validated in mice bearing MDA-MB-231 breast cancer.