Near-infrared photoactivated nanomedicines for photothermal synergistic cancer therapy

Abstract Cancer nanomedicines have provided promising treatment strategies for the regression of several types of cancer, although there still exists a need for significant advances to improve their therapeutic outcomes and reduce side effects. In this context, photothermal therapy (PTT) that uses near-infrared (NIR) photoirradiation of photothermal agents to generate heat for localized thermal damages has been established as a safe therapeutic modality. In addition to direct ablation of tumors, the heat generated during PTT process can achieve on-demand release of other therapeutic compounds, regulation of gene transcription and enzyme activity and enhancement of chemical reactions in tumor tissues, thereby resulting in photothermal synergistic cancer therapy with obviously improved benefits. In this review, we summarize the recent developments in NIR photoactivated nanomedicines for photothermal synergistic cancer therapy. We introduce the designing principles and the working mechanisms of nanoparticles upon NIR photoirradiation and their applications in photothermal synergistic chemotherapy, enzyme therapy, gene therapy, photodynamic therapy, chemodynamic therapy, thermodynamic therapy, immunotherapy and their multimodal therapies for cancer. Moreover, we discuss the existing challenges and further perspectives in this field.