One-for-all phototheranostics: Single component AIE dots as multi-modality theranostic agent for fluorescence-photoacoustic imaging-guided synergistic cancer therapy

Construction of single component theranostic agent with one-for-all features to concurrently afford both multi-modality imaging and therapy is an appealing yet significantly challenging task. Herein, a type of luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics are tactfully designed and facilely synthesized. These AIE luminogens (AIEgens) exhibit long emission wavelengths, good photostability, remarkable biocompatibility, good reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation performance and excellent photothermal conversion efficiency, which allow them to be powerfully utilized for in vitro and in vivo cancer phototheranostics. The results show that one of the AIEgens is capable of precisely diagnosing solid tumors of mice by means of combined near-infrared-I/II (NIR-I/II) fluorescence-photoacoustic imaging, meanwhile this AIEgen can activate photodynamic and photothermal synergistic therapy (PDT-PTT) upon laser irradiation, resulting in excellent tumor elimination efficacy with only once injection and irradiation. This study thus provides a versatile platform for practical cancer theranostics.