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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Yen Nee Tan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2022, The Author(s).The great promise of photodynamic therapy (PDT) has thrusted the rapid progress of developing highly effective photosensitizers (PS) in killing cancerous cells and bacteria. To mitigate the intrinsic limitations of the classical molecular photosensitizers, researchers have been looking into designing new generation of nanomaterial-based photosensitizers (nano-photosensitizers) with better photostability and higher singlet oxygen generation (SOG) efficiency, and ways of enhancing the performance of existing photosensitizers. In this paper, we review the recent development of nano-photosensitizers and nanoplasmonic strategies to enhance the SOG efficiency for better PDT performance. Firstly, we explain the mechanism of reactive oxygen species generation by classical photosensitizers, followed by a brief discussion on the commercially available photosensitizers and their limitations in PDT. We then introduce three types of new generation nano-photosensitizers that can effectively produce singlet oxygen molecules under visible light illumination, i.e., aggregation-induced emission nanodots, metal nanoclusters (< 2 nm), and carbon dots. Different design approaches to synthesize these nano-photosensitizers were also discussed. To further enhance the SOG rate of nano-photosensitizers, plasmonic strategies on using different types of metal nanoparticles in both colloidal and planar metal-PS systems are reviewed. The key parameters that determine the metal-enhanced SOG (ME-SOG) efficiency and their underlined enhancement mechanism are discussed. Lastly, we highlight the future prospects of these nanoengineering strategies, and discuss how the future development in nanobiotechnology and theoretical simulation could accelerate the design of new photosensitizers and ME-SOG systems for highly effective image-guided photodynamic therapy. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
Author(s): Tavakkoli Yaraki M, Liu B, Tan YN
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Nano-Micro Letters
Year: 2022
Volume: 14
Issue: 123
Online publication date: 05/05/2022
Acceptance date: 21/03/2022
ISSN (print): 2311-6706
ISSN (electronic): 2150-5551
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-022-00856-y
DOI: 10.1007/s40820-022-00856-y
