Design and development of
photosensitizers that can efficiently convert energy of near-infrared (NIR)
laser irradiation are of major importance for
cancer photoassisted
therapeutics. Herein, for the first time, it is demonstrated that
Prussian blue (PB), a classic coordination compound, can act as a novel
photosensitizer with efficient generation of
singlet oxygen and excellent photothermal conversion via NIR photoirradiation-induced energy transfer. After modification with
hyaluronic acid (HA), the as-prepared HA-modified PB nanocubes (HA@PB) are highly dispersible in aqueous and physiological solutions, as well as show excellent photothermal/photodynamic activities under NIR (808 nm) photoexcitation. On the basis of these features, HA@PB is used to study their in vitro and in vivo combined
therapeutic effect. Owing to the CD44
ligand of HA, HA@PB have specific uptake by CD44-positive cells in vitro and can be precisely in vivo delivered to the
tumor site. HA@PB as one of the synergistically photodynamic/photothermal combination nanoplatforms could achieve excellent therapeutic efficacy with targeted specificity under the guidance of dual-modality photoacoustic/infrared thermal imaging. Hence, this work is expected to pave the way for using PB-based nanomaterials as a promising multifunctional
theranostic nanoplatform in biomedical fields.