Highly Emissive Platinum(II) Metallacage in the Near-Infrared Region for Synergistic Chemo-Photodynamic Therapy

Highly emissive metallacages that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important to synergistic cancer therapy, but it is still challenging to balance the emission and phototheranostic properties. Herein, a metallacage of DTPABT-Mc is prepared. It is observed that emission in the near-infrared region from 600 to 1000 nm with a high photoluminescence quantum yield value of 7.92% in solids is recorded for DTPABT-Mc. In addition, the ability to produce both type I and type II ROS under light irradiation is also observed, leading to potential application in photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemotherapy. After that, 4T1@DTPABT-Mc-NPs, covering DTPABT-Mc nanoparticles with 4T1 cell membranes, are prepared to enhance their tumor-targeting ability. This finally results in effective therapeutic performance in vivo, effectively inhibiting tumor growth. These results suggest that DTPABT-Mc-NPs exhibit excellent synergistic therapeutic effects by combining PDT and chemotherapy, providing new ideas to design agents for diagnosis and therapy in the future.