Sphere–like aggregates of porphyrin as phototherapeutic agent for synergistic cancer treatment

Nowadays, “all–in–one” nano–agent combing various phototherapeutic effects into one nano–system has been attracted more attention in cancer therapy. Herein, a new kind of photosensitizers (PSs) aggregate is designed and constructed. Tetra (4–carboxy phenyl) porphyrin (TCPP), acted as element, is used to form a sphere–like TCPP nanoparticles (TNP) by the self–assembly process. The obtained TNP not only shows good hydrophilia, but also possesses a high photothermal conversion efficiency ( η  = 31%) which the excessive energy from the excited singlet state (S n ) to the ground state (S 0 ) can be converted into heat. Moreover, TNP is served as photodynamic therapy (PDT) agent because of their components. The synergistic effect of PDT and photothermal therapy (PTT) gives TNP to superior antitumor performance under NIR laser irradiation . Meanwhile, TNP also exhibit an excellent biocompatible and safe for biomedical applications . This work provides novel insight for developing an outstanding phototherapeutic agent based on PSs aggregates to synergistically treat cancer.