Stable Organic Photosensitizer Nanoparticles with Absorption Peak beyond 800 Nanometers and High Reactive Oxygen Species Yield for Multimodality Phototheranostics

Abstract

Effective multimodality phototheranostics under deep-penetration laser excitation is highly desired for tumor medicine, which is still at a deadlock due to lack of versatile photosensitizers with absorption located in the long-wavelength region. Herein, we demonstrate a stable organic photosensitizer nanoparticle based on molecular engineering of benzo[<i>c</i>]thiophene (BT)-based photoactivated molecules with strong wavelength-tunable absorption in the near-infrared region. <i>Via</i> molecular design, the absorption and singlet oxygen generation of BT molecules would be reliably tuned. Importantly, the nanoparticles with a red-shifted absorption peak of 843 nm not only show over 10-fold reactive oxygen species yield compared with indocyanine green but also demonstrate a notable photothermal effect and photoacoustic signal upon 808 nm excitation. The <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> experiments substantiate good multimodal anticancer efficacy and imaging performance of BT theranostics. This work provides an organic photosensitizer nanoparticle with long-wavelength excitation and high photoenergy conversion efficiency for multimodality phototherapy.