Fig. 1.

Schematic diagram of the Chl. coupled PDT strategy for enhanced local and abscopal anti-tumor effects.Chl. were firstly injected into mice and then irradiated with laser illumination. Chl. can be taken as oxygen suppliers to produce O₂ under laser illumination whcih can reverse tumor hypoxia environment, strengthen Ce6-NPs based PDT against tumor and produce tumor associated antigen for further immune activation. Immunoactive substances released by Chl. post PDT can be taken as immune adjuvants, which increase the activation of dendritic cells (DCs) and promote the production of anti-tumor cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Chl. coupled PDT enhanced PDT-related immune responses and elicited anti-tumor effects toward abscopal tumors (75%), controlled the challenged tumors (100%) and alleviated metastatic tumors (90%).