title: ZnO-functionalized upconverting nanotheranostic agent: multi-modality imaging-guided chemotherapy with on-demand drug release triggered by pH.
abstract: Limited therapeutic efficiency and severe side effects in patients are two major issues existing in current chemotherapy of cancers in clinic. To design a proper theranostic platform seems thus quite needed to target cancer cells accurately by bioimaging and simultaneously release drugs on demand without premature leakage. A novel ZnO-functionalized upconverting nanotheranostic platform has been fabricated for clear multi-modality bioimaging (upconversion luminescence (UCL), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) and specific pH-triggered on-demand drug release. In our theranostic platform multi-modality imaging provides much more detailed and exact information for cancer diagnosis than single-modality imaging. In addition, ZnO can play the role of a "gatekeeper" to efficiently block the drug in the mesopores of the as-prepared agents until it is dissolved in the acidic environment around tumors to realize sustained release of the drug. More importantly, the biodegradable ZnO, which is non-toxic against normal tissues, endows the as-prepared agents with high therapeutic effectiveness but very low side effects. These findings are of great interests and will inspire us much to develop novel effective imaging-guided on-demand chemotherapies in cancer treatment.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changchun, 130022 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Yinghui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shuyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Dapeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hongjie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods; D036103:Nanotechnology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D015034:Zinc Oxide
keywords: cancer; drug delivery; multi-modality imaging; therapeutic agents; upconverting nanoparticles