pH‐Responsive Cyanine‐Grafted Graphene Oxide for Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer‐Enhanced Photothermal Therapy |
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| Authors: | Miao Guo Jie Huang Yibin Deng He Shen Yufei Ma Mengxin Zhang Aijun Zhu Yanli Li He Hui Yangyun Wang Xiangliang Yang Zhijun Zhang Huabing Chen |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Translational Research and Therapy for Neuro‐Psycho‐Diseases and College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China;2. Key Laboratory of Nano‐Bio Interface, Division of Nanobiomedicine, Suzhou Institute of Nano‐Tech and Nano‐Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China;3. School for Radiological & Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD‐X), Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and School of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China;4. National Engineering Research Center for Nanomedicine, and College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Hubei, Wuhan, China |
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| Abstract: | Stimuli‐responsive anticancer agents are of particular interest in the field of cancer therapy. Nevertheless, so far stimuli‐responsive photothermal agents have been explored with limited success for cancer photothermal therapy (PTT). In this work, as a proof‐of‐concept, a pH‐responsive photothermal nanoconjugate for enhanced PTT efficacy, in which graphene oxide (GO) with broad NIR absorbance and effective photothermal conversion efficiency is selected as a typical model receptor of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), and grafted cyanine dye (e.g., Cypate) acts as the donor of near‐infrared fluorescence (NIRF), is reported for the first time. The conjugate of Cypate‐grafted GO exhibits different conformations in aqueous solutions at various pH, which can trigger pH‐dependent FRET effect between GO and Cypate and thus induce pH‐responsive photothermal effect of GO‐Cypate. GO‐Cypate exhibits severe cell damage owing to the enhanced photothermal effect in lysosomes, and thus generate synergistic PTT efficacy with tumor ablation upon photoirradiation after a single‐dose intravenous injection. The photothermal nanoconjugate with broad NIR absorbance as the effective receptor of FRET can smartly convert emitted NIRF energy from donor cyanine dye into additional photothermal effect for improving PTT. These results suggest that the smart nanoconjugate can act as a promising stimuli‐responsive photothermal nanoplatform for cancer therapy. |
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| Keywords: | pH‐responsive graphene oxide cyanine fluorescence resonance energy transfer photothermal therapy |
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