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 (O2) is needed to generate singlet oxygen (1O2) for cell destruction. Inspired by the excellent O2 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 O2 to the tumor site, aiming to improve PDT efficiency. We found that the accelerated generation of 1O2 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 1O2, 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.