title: Albumin-NIR dye self-assembled nanoparticles for photoacoustic pH imaging and pH-responsive photothermal therapy effective for large tumors.
abstract: Real-time in vivo pH imaging in the tumor, as well as designing therapies responsive to the acidic tumor microenvironment to achieve optimized therapeutic outcomes have been of great interests in the field of nanomedicine. Herein, a pH-responsive near-infrared (NIR) croconine (Croc) dye is able to induce the self-assembly of human serum albumin (HSA) to form HSA-Croc nanoparticles useful not only for real-time ratiometric photoacoustic pH imaging of the tumor, but also for pH responsive photothermal therapy with unexpected great performance against tumors with relatively large sizes. Such HSA-Croc nanoparticles upon intravenous injection exhibit efficient tumor homing. As the decrease of pH, the absorption of Croc at 810 nm would increase while that at 680 nm would decrease, allowing real-time pH sensing in the tumor by double-wavelength ratiometric photoacoustic imaging, which reveals the largely decreased pH inside the cores of large tumors. Moreover, utilizing HSA-Croc as a pH-responsive photothermal agent, effective photothermal ablation of large tumors is realized, likely owing to the more evenly distributed intratumoral heating compared to that achieved by conventional pH-insensitive photothermal agents, which are effective mostly for tumors with small sizes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China.
authors.forename: Jianfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China.
authors.forename: Zhenping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China. Electronic address: zliu@suda.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhuang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D006979:Hyperthermia, Induced; D007259:Infrared Rays; D008819:Mice, Nude; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D061088:Photoacoustic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D010789:Phototherapy; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D012709:Serum Albumin
keywords: Albumin nanoparticles; Photoacoustic imaging; pH mapping; pH responsive photothermal therapy