Recent progress on photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy

Abstract

Noninvasive treatments for terminal cancer patients constitute a new trend in tumor treatment. Therefore, phototherapy, including photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), has attracted considerable interest. Light and a photosensitizer (PS) are employed in both treatment methods. For PDT, the PS generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) when exposed to light, whereas for PTT, the PS generates heat. In this regard, the systematic design of new PSs has become an active area of phototherapy research in an effort to solve the problems associated with conventional PSs. In the past decade, activatable and heavy‐atom‐free PSs have become significant research areas. Therefore, we discuss our recent contributions to the PDT and PTT in this account.

Excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT)-based fluorescent probes for biomarker detection: design, mechanism, and application

“…Biomarkers, which can objectively measure and evaluate physiological or pathological processes, have aroused widespread attention and research interest. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] As shown in Table 1, we list some important biomarkers, their participating physiological processes, and related diseases. Evidently, these biomarkers are closely related to many diseases; therefore, there is an urgent need to monitor the indicators of these biomarkers to accurately reflect changes or even real-time changes in biomarkers.…”

Photodynamic and photothermal therapies for bacterial infection treatment

“…[11] Recently, antibacterial PDT and PTT, which show antibacterial effects depending on the PDT or PTT effect of PSs, have been actively studied. [12,13] The recently reported potential application areas of PDT, PTT, and the ROS and heat produced by PSs are emerging as new strategies for antibacterial drug design and synergistic chemotherapy. [3] Despite the various advantages of phototherapy that have been studied so far, low solubility of phototherapy agents in water, which induces poor light absorption and biocompatibility, must be solved to move on to clinical trials.…”

“…Recently, antibacterial PDT and PTT, which show antibacterial effects depending on the PDT or PTT effect of PSs, have been actively studied [12,13] . The recently reported potential application areas of PDT, PTT, and the ROS and heat produced by PSs are emerging as new strategies for antibacterial drug design and synergistic chemotherapy [3] .…”

Observing hydrogen sulfide in the endoplasmic reticulum of cancer cells and zebrafish by using an activity-based fluorescent probe

“…To our delight, fluorescent probe technology has been applied to image H 2 S in living cells and in vivo [19][20][21] by virtue of its inherent merits, including high selectivity, good sensitivity and excellent spatial and temporal resolution. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an organelle with a membrane-enclosed sac structure found in most eukaryotic cells. There are several activities that the ER performs in the cell that are critical for living cells.…”

“…To our delight, fluorescent probe technology has been applied to image H 2 S in living cells and in vivo 19–21 by virtue of its inherent merits, including high selectivity, good sensitivity and excellent spatial and temporal resolution. 22–28…”