In preclinical and clinical research, to destroy cancers, particularly those located in deep tissues, is still a great challenge. Photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy are promising alternative approaches for tissue cancer curing. Black phosphorus (BP)-based nanomaterials, with broad UV-vis near-infrared absorbance and excellent photothermal effect, have shown great potential in biomedical applications. Herein, a biocompatible therapeutic platform, chlorin e6 (Ce6)-decorated BP nanosheets (NSs), has been developed for fluorescence and thermal imaging-guided photothermal and photodynamic synergistic cancer treatment. Taking advantage of the relatively high surface area of exfoliated BP NSs, the PEG-NH-modified BP NSs (BP@PEG) are loaded with a Ce6 photosensitizer. The resulted BP@PEG/Ce6 NSs not only have good biocompatibility, physiological stability, and tumor-targeting property but also exhibit enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency (43.6%) compared with BP@PEG NSs (28.7%). In addition, BP@PEG/Ce6 NSs could efficiently generate reactive oxygen species because of the release of the Ce6 photosensitizer, which is also verified by in vitro studies. In vivo fluorescence imaging suggests that BP@PEG/Ce6 NSs can accumulate in the tumor targetedly through the enhanced permeability and retention effect. Both in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that BP@PEG/Ce6 can be a promising nanotheranostic agent for synergetic photothermal/photodynamic cancer therapy.

Tumor hypoxia strengthens tumor resistance to different therapies especially oxygen involved strategies, such as photodynamic therapy (PDT). Herein, the thermal responsive phase change materials (PCM) are utilized to coencapsulate ultrasmall manganese dioxide (sMnO 2 ) and organic photosensitizer IR780 to obtain IR780-sMnO 2 -PCM nanoparticles for controlled tumor hypoxia modulation and enhanced phototherapy. The thermal responsive protective PCM layer can not only prevent IR780 from photodegradation, but also immediately release sMnO 2 to decompose endogenous H 2 O 2 and generate enough oxygen for PDT under laser irradiation. Owing to the efficient accumulation of IR780-sMnO 2 -PCM nanoparticles in tumor under intravenous injection as revealed by both florescence imaging and photoacoustic imaging, the tumor hypoxia is greatly relieved. Furthermore, in vivo combined photothermal therapy (PTT) and PDT, IR780-sMnO 2 -PCM nanoparticles, compared to IR780-PCM nanoparticles, exhibit better performance in inhibiting tumor growth. The results highlight the promise of IR780-sMnO 2 -PCM in controlled modulation of tumor hypoxia to overcome current limitations of cancer therapies.

The combination of reactive oxygen species‐involved chemodynamic therapy (CDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) holds great promise in enhancing anticancer effects. Herein, a multifunctional Fe‐doped polyoxometalate (Fe‐POM) cluster is fabricated via a simple method. The Fe‐POM can not only be utilized as PTT agents to generate a hyperthermia effect for cancer cell killing under near‐infrared (NIR) II laser (1060 nm) irradiation, but also can be used as CDT agents to convert endogenous less‐reactive H2O2 into harmful ·OH and simultaneously deplete glutathione for an amplified CDT effect. Notably, the hyperthermia induced by PTT can further enhance the CDT effect, achieving a synergistic PTT/CDT effect. Owing to the self‐assembling properties at lowered pH values, the Fe‐POM exhibits high tumor accumulation as revealed by photoacoustic imaging. More importantly, Fe‐POM enables effective destruction of tumors without inducing noticeable damage to normal tissues under 1060 nm laser irradiation. The work presents a new type of multifunctional agent with high PTT/CDT efficacy, providing promising methods for PTT‐enhanced CDT in a NIR‐II biowindow.

Herein, persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) and photosensitizer are integrated for cancer theranostics with high specificity and without the need of continuous illumination. Specifically, ZnGa1.996O4:Cr0.004 (PLNPs) and IR780 (photosensitizer) are encapsulated by a temperature‐responsive “wax‐seal” composed of oleic acid and hexadecanol. The seal prevents luminescence quenching and premature initiation of photodynamic therapy (PDT), until it is melted down by heat stimulus. After photothermal activation, the near‐infrared afterglow offered by PLNPs provides imaging with high signal‐to‐background ratio because of the absence of tissue autofluorescence, as well as continuously excited photosensitizer for reactive oxygen species generation. Such theranostic nanoplatform offers multimodal imaging–guided localized cancer PDT.

Subcutaneous abscesses caused by drug-resistant pathogens pose a serious challenge to human health. To overcome this problem, here-in an acidity-responsive ag-gregated W/Mo-based poly-oxometalate (POM) was de-veloped for photothermal-enhanced chemodynamic antibacterial...