2025/03/01 by Xiao Liu, Yuan Zhang, Peng Zhang +6 · 1 voice
Medicine · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · #Photodynamic Therapy Research Studies #Retinoids in leukemia and cellular processes #Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics
paper · doi:10.1116/6.0004203
openalex publication_date 2025/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is a prodrug of the photodynamic therapy (PDT) for the treatment of certain skin diseases and neuronal cancers in the clinic. However, it is difficult for 5-ALA to target specific cells and, therefore, to accumulate within deeper lesions, leading to poor conversion of protoporphyrin IX, the active photodynamic agent. To solve this problem, targeted nanogels were developed for controlled 5-ALA delivery. Here, nanogels with folic acid as a targeting ligand were prepared by inverse microemulsion polymerization using the peptide cross-linker acryl-PLGLAGK(Alloc)-NH2, a generic substrate for matrix metalloproteinases, enzymes associated with many tumors. The stability, entrapment efficiency, drug loading, and drug release ability of the nanogels were studied with skin cancer cells (A2058) and showed that the targeting nanogels enhanced the concentration of 5-ALA in tumor cells and improved the efficiency of PDT in vitro. In vivo experiments showed that the targeting nanogels loaded with 5-ALA dramatically inhibited the development of skin cancer.