TME-responsive nanoplatform for multimodal imaging-guided synergistic precision therapy of esophageal cancer via inhibiting HIF-1α signal pathway

Esophageal cancer (EC) is the sixth leading cause of cancer-related deaths, and its treatment poses significant challenges. In recent years, photodynamic, photothermal, and chemodynamic therapies have emerged as alternative strategies for tumor intervention. However, limitations such as poor tumor targeting, insufficient microenvironment responsiveness, and unclear mechanisms hinder their application. In this study, we found that hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α) was highly expressed in clinical EC samples, which contributed to tumor malignancy and metastasis. We developed a carbon dots (CDs)-based tumor microenvironment (TME)-responsive nanoplatform, CDs-MnO