title: Smart Nanostructures for Cargo Delivery: Uncaging and Activating by Light.
abstract: Nanotechnology has begun to play a remarkable role in various fields of science and technology. In biomedical applications, nanoparticles have opened new horizons, especially for biosensing, targeted delivery of therapeutics, and so forth. Among drug delivery systems (DDSs), smart nanocarriers that respond to specific stimuli in their environment represent a growing field. Nanoplatforms that can be activated by an external application of light can be used for a wide variety of photoactivated therapies, especially light-triggered DDSs, relying on photoisomerization, photo-cross-linking/un-cross-linking, photoreduction, and so forth. In addition, light activation has potential in photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, radiotherapy, protected delivery of bioactive moieties, anticancer drug delivery systems, and theranostics (i.e., real-time monitoring and tracking combined with a therapeutic action to different diseases sites and organs). Combinations of these approaches can lead to enhanced and synergistic therapies, employing light as a trigger or for activation. Nonlinear light absorption mechanisms such as two-photon absorption and photon upconversion have been employed in the design of light-responsive DDSs. The integration of a light stimulus into dual/multiresponsive nanocarriers can provide spatiotemporal controlled delivery and release of therapeutic agents, targeted and controlled nanosystems, combined delivery of two or more agents, their on-demand release under specific conditions, and so forth. Overall, light-activated nanomedicines and DDSs are expected to provide more effective therapies against serious diseases such as cancers, inflammation, infections, and cardiovascular disease with reduced side effects and will open new doors toward the treatment of patients worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7977-3940
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karimi
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology (RCPN), Tabriz University of Medical Science (TUOMS) , Tabriz, Iran.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sharif University of Technology , 11365-9466 Tehran, Iran.|Nanomedicine Research Association (NRA), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN) , Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Parham
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8316-6732
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sahandi Zangabad
authors.affiliation: Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, University of North Carolina at Greensboro , Greensboro, North Carolina 27401, United States.
authors.forename: Soodeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baghaee-Ravari
authors.affiliation: Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, University of North Carolina at Greensboro , Greensboro, North Carolina 27401, United States.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghazadeh
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mirshekari
authors.affiliation: Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School , Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.|Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School , Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.|Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology , Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6431-4605
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hamblin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D050997:Nanomedicine; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010778:Photochemotherapy
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers