Figure 12.

Combined exogenous/endogenous-activatable nanomedicine for cancer theranostics. A) Light/GSH-activatable pseudo-semiconducting polymeric nanoparticles (NP@PE^DOX/PSP) for NIR-II fluorescence imaging, photodynamic immunotherapy, and photo-activated chemotherapy. a) Schematic of the preparation process of NP@PE^DOX/PSP and its activation for imaging and therapy. b) In vivo NIR-II images of a murine tumor model treated with NP@PE^DOX/PSP at different time points. c) Tumor growth curves of the mice groups treated with different methods, including PBS, NP-PSP (G1), DOX (G2), NP-PE^DOX (G3), NP@PE^DOX/PSP (G4), NP-PSP + L (G5), and NP@PE^DOX/PSP + L (G6). d) Quantitative analysis of CD8⁺ T cells in the tumor site and the spleen, CD80⁺CD86⁺ DCs in the tumors, and the M₁/M₂ ratio in the tumors from different groups. Reproduced with permission ¹⁹¹. Copyright 2022, Wiley-VCH. B) Light/enzyme-activatable SIA-αTSLs for MRI/NIRF-guided photothermal therapy. a) Changes in the chemical structure and hydrodynamic size via DLS of SIA-αTSLs after sequential activation by cathepsin B and light. b) T2WI of SIA-αTSLs incubated with/without cathepsin B. c) Intratumoral cytokines; d) ratios of CD8⁺ T cells to Tregs in the tumor tissue; and e) tumor weights at the endpoint of the CT26-bearing mice after different treatments. Reproduced with permission ¹⁹⁶. Copyright 2022 the Authors, published by Wiley-VCH.