title: Marriage of scintillator and semiconductor for synchronous radiotherapy and deep photodynamic therapy with diminished oxygen dependence.
abstract: Strong oxygen dependence and limited penetration depth are the two major challenges facing the clinical application of photodynamic therapy (PDT). In contrast, ionizing radiation is too penetrative and often leads to inefficient radiotherapy (RT) in the clinic because of the lack of effective energy accumulation in the tumor region. Inspired by the complementary advantages of PDT and RT, we present herein the integration of a scintillator and a semiconductor as an ionizing-radiation-induced PDT agent, achieving synchronous radiotherapy and depth-insensitive PDT with diminished oxygen dependence. In the core-shell Ce(III)-doped LiYF4@SiO2@ZnO structure, the downconverted ultraviolet fluorescence from the Ce(III)-doped LiYF4 nanoscintillator under ionizing irradiation enables the generation of electron-hole (e(-)-h(+)) pairs in ZnO nanoparticles, giving rise to the formation of biotoxic hydroxyl radicals. This process is analogous to a type I PDT process for enhanced antitumor therapeutic efficacy.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Ding-xi Road, Shanghai 200050 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kuaile
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Wenbo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.forename: Dalong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Yanyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jingwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jianlin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism*; D010778:Photochemotherapy; D011878:Radiotherapy; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D012588:Scintillation Counting; D012666:Semiconductors
chemical_list: D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D010100:Oxygen
keywords: antitumor agents; oxygen; photodynamic therapy; radiotherapy; semiconductors