Phototheranostics
has attracted considerable attention in the fields
of cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, the complete eradication
of solid tumors using traditional phototheranostics is difficult because
of the limited depth and range of laser irradiation. New phototheranostics
enabling precise phototherapy and post-treatment imaging-guided programmed
therapy for residual tumors is urgently required. Accordingly, this
study developed a novel transformable phototheranostics by assembling
hyaluronic acid (HA) with copper-nitrogen-coordinated carbon dots
(CDs). In this transformable nanoplatform, named copper-nitrogen-CDs@HA,
the HA component enables the specific targeting of cluster determinant
(CD) 44-overexpressing tumor cells. In the tumor cells, redox glutathione
converts Cu(II) (cupric ions) into Cu(I) (cuprous ions), which confers
the novel transformable functionality to phototheranostics. Both in vitro and in vivo results reveal that
the near-infrared-light-photoactivated CuII-N-CDs@HA could
target CD44-overexpressing tumor cells for precise synergistic photothermal
therapy and photodynamic therapy. This study is the first to observe
that CuII-N-CDs@HA could escape from lysosomes and be transformed in situ into CuI-N-CDs@HA in tumor cells, with
the d9 electronic configuration of Cu(II) changing to the
d10 electronic configuration of Cu(I), which turns on their
fluorescence and turns off their photothermal properties. This transformable
phototheranostics could be used for post-treatment imaging-guided
photodynamic therapy on residual tumor cells. Thus, the rationally
designed copper-nitrogen-coordinated CDs offer a simple in
situ transformation strategy for using multiple-stimulus-responsive
precise phototheranostics in post-treatment monitoring of residual
tumor cells and imaging-guided programmed therapy.