Perfluorocarbon-based O2 nanocarrier for efficient photodynamic therapy

Tumor hypoxia is considered as one of the major factors that limit the efficiency of photodynamic therapy (PDT), in which oxygen (O 2 ) is needed to generate singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) for cell destruction. Inspired by the excellent O 2 carrying ability of perfluorocarbon molecules in artificial blood, we prepared a series of polymer micelles with a perfluorocarbon core to carry both photo-sensitizer and O 2 to the tumor site, aiming to improve PDT efficiency. We found that the accelerated generation of 1 O 2 correlated with the increased perfluorocarbon amount in solution. In vitro cell study further showed that the new perfluorocarbon formulation not only improved the production of 1 O 2 , leading to enhanced photodynamic therapy efficiency, but also significantly reduced cell toxicity when compared with the one without these perfluoro units. This work provides a new option for improving PDT efficiency with the new perfluorocarbon-incorporated nanoplatform