Recent Progress in Carrier‐Free Nanomedicine for Tumor Phototherapy

Abstract

Safe and effective strategies are urgently needed to fight against the life‐threatening diseases of various cancers. However, traditional therapeutic modalities, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery, exhibit suboptimal efficacy for malignant tumors owing to the serious side effects, drug resistance and even relapse. Phototherapies, including photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), are emerging therapeutic strategies for localized tumor inhibition, which can produce a large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or elevate the temperature to initiate cell death by non‐invasive irradiation. In consideration of the poor bioavailability of phototherapy agents (PTAs), lots of drug delivery systems have been developed to enhance the tumor targeted delivery. Nevertheless, the carriers of drug delivery systems inevitably bring biosafety concerns on account of their metabolism, degradation, and accumulation. Of note, carrier‐free nanomedicine attracts great attention for clinical translation with synergistic antitumor effect, which is characterized by high drug loading, simplified synthetic method and good biocompatibility. In this review, the latest advances of phototherapy with various carrier‐free nanomedicines are summarized, which may provide a new paradigm for the future development of nanomedicine and tumor precision therapy.

Phenylboronic Acid‐Modified Near‐Infrared Region II Excitation Donor–Acceptor–Donor Molecule for 2‐Deoxy‐d‐Glucose Improved Starvation/Chemo/Photothermal Combination Therapy

“…Materials: Unless indicated otherwise, all synthetic procedures were performed in an anhydrous and oxygen-free environment, and all reagents were received from commercial sources. 2-(9,9-bis (6-bromohexyl)-9Hfluoren-2-yl) thiophene (F-Sn) and 4,8-Bis (5-bromo-4-(2-octyldodecy) thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-c; 4,5-c′] bis [1,2,5] thiadaole) (BBT, 98%) were purchased from SunaTech Inc. 3-Bromomethylphenylboronic acid was purchased at Innochem. 2-Deoxy-d-glucose was purchased from Aladdin Reagent Co., Ltd. Doxorubicin hydrochloride was purchased from Macklin.…”

“…Yield: 82.66 mg (56%). 1 , 150 μL) with 1064 nm laser irradiation. About 24 h after the intravenous injection, the tumor regions of the abovementioned group V (BTP NPs + Laser group) and group VI (BTP/DOX/2DG NPs + Laser group) were irradiated under 1064 nm continuous laser irradiation for 5 min at 1.0 W cm −2 power density.…”

“…Cancer is a leading public health problem globally and seriously affects the quality of life for patients. [1] Considerable clinical tumor therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have been developed for treating tumors. [2,3] Chemotherapy is the most widely used cancer treatment option because of the high cytotoxicity of drugs such as doxorubicin (DOX), cisplatin, and camptothecin against cancer cells.…”

Nanomedicine Combats Drug Resistance in Lung Cancer

“…The carrier‐free nanomedicine can mitigate intrinsic issues of nanocarrier‐derived nanomedicinal treatment, including reducing toxic side effects to healthy tissues, enhancing the delivery efficiency, and increasing the drug loading. [ 385 ] Furthermore, the TME‐responsive carrier‐free nanomedicine can provide sufficient specificity to cancer cells, enhance the therapeutic outcomes, and overcoming drug resistance in comparison with current drug delivery systems. [ 386 ] The manufacturing process for the TME‐responsive carrier‐free nanomedicine could be scaled‐up in a quality control manner.…”

Mitochondria-Mediated HSP Inhibition Strategy for Enhanced Low-Temperature Photothermal Therapy

“…To this end, the strategy of inhibiting the function of heat shock proteins (HSPs), specifically HSP70 and HSP90, in tumor cells has been widely adopted, ,− because HSP70 and HSP90, as members of the HSP family, are not only involved in the regulation of proteins critical for tumor survival but also restrict the efficacy of PTT. − A variety of small molecule compounds have been developed to inhibit HSP90, and many are already in clinical trials. , However, recent evidence shows that some monotherapies inducing high levels of HSP70 likely result in disappointing clinical anticancer results. , To counter the poor outcome of these classical inhibitors, there is a preference for the dual inhibition of HSP90 and HSP70 to treat cancer. , Nevertheless, only a limited number of compounds effectively modulate the function of HSP70. , Showing synergistic or additive effects in combination with HSP90 inhibitors in vitro and in vivo remains challenging.…”