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Nano Research 2021, 14(3): 667-673 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3094-0
Research Article | Issue | Published: 01 March 2021

Cyanobacteria-based near-infrared light-excited self-supplying oxygen system for enhanced photodynamic therapy of hypoxic tumors

Show Author's Information Yinghua Zhang1,2,§,  Huifang Liu2,3,§,  Xinyue Dai1,2,  Hang Li1,2,  Xiaohan Zhou2,  Shizhu Chen4,5,  Jinchao Zhang1,2( ),  Xing-Jie Liang2,3,6,  Zhenhua Li1,2( )
College of Chemistry & Environmental Science, Analytical Chemistry Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, Chemical Biology Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of Ministry of Education, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
College of Pharmaceutical Science, Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Quality Control of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
Beijing Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited, Beijing 100101, China
The National Institutes of Pharmaceutical R&D Co., Ltd., China Resources Pharmaceutical Group Limited, Beijing 102206, China
CAS Key Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China

§ Yinghua Zhang and Huifang Liu contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
photodynamic therapy, upconversion nanoparticles, self-supplying oxygen, cyanobacteria, hypoxic tumor
Topics:
Chemotherapy Drug deliveryInfrared devices OxygenTumors
Cite this article:
Zhang Y, Liu H, Dai X, et al. Cyanobacteria-based near-infrared light-excited self-supplying oxygen system for enhanced photodynamic therapy of hypoxic tumors. Nano Research, 2021, 14(3): 667-673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3094-0
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Tumor hypoxia has been considered to induce tumor cell resistance to radiotherapy and anticancer chemotherapy, as well as predisposing for increased tumor metastases. Therefore, strategies for the eradication of the hypoxic tumor are highly desirable. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new technique that can be used to treat tumors using laser irradiation to photochemically activate a photosensitizer. Compared to traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy has many advantages, such as good selectivity, low toxicity, and less trauma and resistance. However, PDT is oxygen-dependent, and the lack of oxygen in hypoxic tumors renders photodynamic therapy ineffective. Cyanobacteria, the earliest photosynthetic oxygen-generating organisms, can utilize water as an electron donor to reduce CO2 into organic carbon compounds along with continuously releasing oxygen under sunlight. Inspired by this, herein, cyanobacteria were used as a living carrier of photosensitizer conjugated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) to construct a self-supplying oxygen PDT system. Improvement in the PDT efficiency for hypoxic tumors can be achieved as a result of in situ oxygen production by cyanobacteria under near-infrared (NIR) light using UCNP as a light harvesting antenna. A successful demonstration of this concept would be of great significance and could open the door to a new generation of carrier systems in the field of hypoxia-targeted drug transport platforms.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Cyanobacteria-based near-infrared light-excited self-supplying oxygen system for enhanced photodynamic therapy of hypoxic tumors

Show Author's information Yinghua Zhang1,2,§, Huifang Liu2,3,§, Xinyue Dai1,2, Hang Li1,2, Xiaohan Zhou2, Shizhu Chen4,5, Jinchao Zhang1,2( ), Xing-Jie Liang2,3,6, Zhenhua Li1,2( )
College of Chemistry & Environmental Science, Analytical Chemistry Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, Chemical Biology Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of Ministry of Education, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
College of Pharmaceutical Science, Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Quality Control of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
Beijing Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited, Beijing 100101, China
The National Institutes of Pharmaceutical R&D Co., Ltd., China Resources Pharmaceutical Group Limited, Beijing 102206, China
CAS Key Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China

§ Yinghua Zhang and Huifang Liu contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Tumor hypoxia has been considered to induce tumor cell resistance to radiotherapy and anticancer chemotherapy, as well as predisposing for increased tumor metastases. Therefore, strategies for the eradication of the hypoxic tumor are highly desirable. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new technique that can be used to treat tumors using laser irradiation to photochemically activate a photosensitizer. Compared to traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy has many advantages, such as good selectivity, low toxicity, and less trauma and resistance. However, PDT is oxygen-dependent, and the lack of oxygen in hypoxic tumors renders photodynamic therapy ineffective. Cyanobacteria, the earliest photosynthetic oxygen-generating organisms, can utilize water as an electron donor to reduce CO2 into organic carbon compounds along with continuously releasing oxygen under sunlight. Inspired by this, herein, cyanobacteria were used as a living carrier of photosensitizer conjugated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) to construct a self-supplying oxygen PDT system. Improvement in the PDT efficiency for hypoxic tumors can be achieved as a result of in situ oxygen production by cyanobacteria under near-infrared (NIR) light using UCNP as a light harvesting antenna. A successful demonstration of this concept would be of great significance and could open the door to a new generation of carrier systems in the field of hypoxia-targeted drug transport platforms.

Keywords: photodynamic therapy, upconversion nanoparticles, self-supplying oxygen, cyanobacteria, hypoxic tumor

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 17 July 2020
Revised: 01 September 2020
Accepted: 03 September 2020
Published: 01 March 2021
Issue date: March 2021

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21977024, 21601046, and 31971304), Advanced Talents Incubation Program of the Hebei University (No. 801260201020), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M650558), Beijing Postdoctoral Research Foundation and Beijing Chaoyang District Postdoctoral Research Fundation. We are grateful to Medical Comprehensive Experimental Center of Hebei University for the animal experiment.

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