Hypoxia‐Responsive Photosensitizer Targeting Dual Organelles for Photodynamic Therapy of Tumors
Yuqi Tang, Xing Wang, Guanqun Zhu, Zhiyang Liu, Xu‐Man Chen, Hari Krishna Bisoyi, Xiao Chen, Xiaofei Chen, Yiyi Xu, Juping Li, Quan Li
Abstract
Developing safe and precise image-guided photodynamic therapy is a challenge. In this study, the hypoxic properties of solid tumors are exploited to construct a hypoxia-responsive photosensitizer, TPA-Azo. Introducing the azo group into the photosensitizer TPA-BN with aggregation-induced emission quenches its fluorescence. When the nonfluorescent TPA-Azo enters hypoxic tumors, it is reduced by the overexpressed azoreductase to generate a fluorescent photosensitizer TPA-BN with an amino group that exhibits fluorescence-activatable image-guided photodynamic therapy with dual-organelle (lipid droplets and lysosomes) targeting. This design strategy provides a basis for the development of fluorescence-activatable photosensitizers.