Persistent luminescence-polypyrrole nanocomposite for dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy of mammary cancer

Multifunctional nanocomposites that possess imaging and high-performance therapeutic features are experiencing a surge in interest in the precision clinical anticancer treatment. In this work, we reported the fabrication and bio-application of a novel persistent luminescence-polypyrrole nanocomposite ( [email protected] ) for photoacoustic/persistent luminescence (PA/PL) dual-modal imaging guided photothermal therapy (PTT). The construction of [email protected] avoids the PL quenching of LPLNP-OH by the polypyrrole-coating, and thus enables the combination of PL and PTT. The [email protected] shows excellent biocompatibility, long lasting near-infrared (NIR) PL emitting without in situ excitation and high-contrast PA signals. Meanwhile, this nanocomposite exhibits strong NIR absorbance and exceptional photothermal conversion capability, which provides notable potential for imaging-guided antitumor therapy. Thus, our work highlights the dual-functional core-shell [email protected] as a feasible theranostic nanoplatform for cancer diagnosis and therapy.