880 nm NIR-triggered organic small molecular based nanoparticles for photothermal therapy of tumor

Yunying Zhao, Zheng He, Qiang Zhang, Jing Wang, Wenying Jia, Long Jin, Linlin Zhao*, Yan Lu

School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin Key Laboratory for Photoelectric Materials and Devices, Key Laboratory of Display Materials & Photoelectric Devices, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China

* Corresponding author, E-mail address: luxingzhao@hotmail.com (L. Zhao)

ABSTRACT: Photothermal therapy (PTT) has received constant attention as efficient cancer therapy method due to locally selective treatment and not affected by tumor microenvironment. In this study, a novel 880 nm near-infrared (NIR) laser triggered photothermal agent (PTA), 3TT-IC-4Cl, was used for PTT of tumor in deep tissue. Folic acid (FA) conjugated amphiphilic block copolymer (folic acid-polyethylene glycol-poly (β-benzyl-L-aspartate)₁₀, FA-PEG-PBLA₁₀) was employed to encapsulate 3TT-IC-4Cl by nano-precipitation to form stable nanoparticles (TNPs), TNPs exhibit excellent photothermal stability and photothermal conversion efficiency. Furthermore, the in vitro results showed TNPs display excellent biocompatibility and significant phototoxicity. These results suggest that 880 nm triggered TNPs has great potential as an effective PTAs for photothermal therapy of tumor in deep tissue.

KEYWORDS : photothermal therapy, NIR-triggered, photothermal agent, deep tissue, nanoparticles