PEGylated liposomal photosensitizers as theranostic agents for dual-modal photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging-guided photodynamic therapy

Hao Xu,Junle Qu,Yubin Liu,Zhen Yuan

doi:10.1142/s1793545819410037

Abstract

The photosensitizer (PS) as photodynamic therapy (PDT) agent, can also serve as the contrast agent for dual-modal fluorescence imaging (FLI) and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) for precise cancer theranostics. In this study, the PAI capability of commercial PS, benzoporphyrin derivative monoacid ring-A (BPD) were examined and compared with that from the other PSs and dyes such as TPPS4, Cy5 dye and ICG. We discovered that BPD exhibited its advantage as contrast agent for PAI. Meanwhile, BPD can also serve as the contrast agent for enhanced FLI. In particular, the PEGylated nanoliposome (PNL) encapsulated BPD (LBPD) was produced for contrast enhanced dual-modal FLI and PAI and imaging-guided high-efficiency PDT. Enhanced FLI and PAI results demonstrated the significant accumulation of LBPD both within and among individual tumor during 24[Formula: see text]h monitoring for in vivo experiment tests. In-vitro and in-vivo PDT tests were also performed, which showed that LBPD have higher PDT efficiency and can easily break the blood vessel of tumor tissues as compared to that from BPD. It was discovered that LBPD has great potentials as a diagnosis and treatment agent for dual-modal FLI and PAI-guided PDT of cancer.

Highlights

To date, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a promising strategy in the personalized treatment of cancers, which generally utilizes PDT drug to induce apoptosis and necrosis of tumor cells through the generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) under light irradiation.[1]
The results demonstrated that liposomal BPD (LBPD), as a potential cancer theranostic nanoplatform, can work as a PS with good PDT e±ciency and as the contrast agent for enhanced dual model FLI and PA imaging (PAI)
Porphyrin-based photosensitziers including benzoporphyrin derivative monoacid ring-A (BPD) and TPPS4 exhibited the highest absorbance peak range for wavelegnths between 400 and 500 nm. This wavelength band can be used as the °uorescence excitation wavelenght for FLI, whereas the PSs with wavelegnths higher than 600 nm can serve as the agents for PDT

Summary

Introduction

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a promising strategy in the personalized treatment of cancers, which generally utilizes PDT drug (photosensitizer, PS) to induce apoptosis and necrosis of tumor cells through the generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) under light irradiation.[1]. To take advantages of the complementary information from these two optical imaging modalities, we present an optimized approach that combines FLI and PAT to improve the in vivo imaging sensitivity for cancer theranostics

Methods

Results

Conclusion