Emerging Prodrug-Engineered nanomedicines for synergistic Chemo-Phototherapy

Chemotherapy is one of the most commonly used treatment regimens for malignant tumors. However, the clinical outcomes of chemotherapy alone are still far from satisfactory, due to the insufficient therapeutic effect and serious side effects. Chemo-phototherapy, with the excellent advantages of synergetic treatment effect and dosage reduction of chemotherapeutics, has received wide attention in multimodal cancer therapy. Prodrug-engineered nanosystems, integrating prodrug strategy with biomedical nanotechnology, offer many benefits for efficient combination drug delivery. In recent years, a wide variety of prodrug-engineered nanomedicines have been developed for efficient chemo-phototherapy. In this review, we intend to outline the latest trends in this field, with a special focus on polymeric prodrug-nanosystems, prodrug/drug co-encapsulation nanocarriers and small-molecule prodrug-nanoassemblies. This review highlights the design rationale, advantages and challenges of the emerging prodrug-engineered nanomedicines in synergistic chemo-phototherapy.