title: Biological Photothermal Nanodots Based on Self-Assembly of Peptide-Porphyrin Conjugates for Antitumor Therapy.
abstract: Photothermal agents can harvest light energy and convert it into heat, offering a targeted and remote-controlled way to destroy carcinomatous cells and tissues. Inspired by the biological organization of polypeptides and porphyrins in living systems, here we have developed a supramolecular strategy to fabricate photothermal nanodots through peptide-modulated self-assembly of photoactive porphyrins. The self-assembling nature of porphyrins induces the formation of J-aggregates as substructures of the nanodots, and thus enables the fabrication of nanodots with totally inhibited fluorescence emission and singlet oxygen production, leading to a high light-to-heat conversion efficiency of the nanodots. The peptide moieties not only provide aqueous stability for the nanodots through hydrophilic interactions, but also provide a spatial barrier between porphyrin groups to inhibit the further growth of nanodots through the strong π-stacking interactions. Thermographic imaging reveals that the conversion of light to heat based on the nanodots is efficient in vitro and in vivo, enabling the nanodots to be applied for photothermal acoustic imaging and antitumor therapy. Antitumor therapy results show that these nanodots are highly biocompatible photothermal agents for tumor ablation, demonstrating the feasibility of using bioinspired nanostructures of self-assembling biomaterials for biomedical photoactive applications.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Qianli
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0464-4156
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Manzar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abbas
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Luyang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Shukun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Guizhi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.|Center for Mesoscience, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Xuehai
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0890-0340
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D008325:Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D015394:Molecular Structure; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D010789:Phototherapy; D011166:Porphyrins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D010455:Peptides; D011166:Porphyrins