Polymer-based Phototherapeutic Nanoagents for Multimodal Image-guided Cancer Therapy

doi:10.1007/s40242-026-5315-x

Abstract

Abstract: Polymer-based phototherapeutic nanoagents provide an effective route to integrate fluorescence (FL) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging with photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT). This review highlights covalently engineered polymer-chromophore systems, in which photothermal agents or photosensitizers are incorporated into polymer backbones via robust linkages (e.g., amide/ester and related bonds) or through polymerizable chromophore monomers. Tumor microenvironment-responsive motifs (e.g., disulfide and thioketal units) further enable activatable behavior and improved selectivity. Importantly, amphiphilic conjugates self-assemble into nanodots, polymersomes, and nanofibers, and assembly morphology and chromophore packing can reprogram excited-state pathways, thereby tuning FL/PA outputs, photothermal conversion, and Type I/II ROS generation. We discuss representative porphyrin/phthalocyanine, heptamethine cyanine, Changsha Red (xanthene-derived), and Nile Blue platforms for multimodal image-guided cancer phototherapy, including mechanism-integrated strategies, such as microenvironment activation, organelle targeting, and immunomodulation. Finally, we outline key challenges and opportunities for translation, including quantitative structure-property correlations, scalable morphology control, standardized photophysical reporting, and biosafety evaluation.

Key words: Polymer-chromophore conjugate, Phototherapeutic nanoagent, Photoacoustic imaging, Fluorescence imaging, Photodynamic and photothermal therapy

WANG Zhixiong, ZHANG Zhenhui. Polymer-based Phototherapeutic Nanoagents for Multimodal Image-guided Cancer Therapy[J]. Chemical Research in Chinese Universities, 2026, 42(2): 400-411.

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