Targeting Drug Delivery with Light: A Highly Focused Approach

Overview

Journal Adv Drug Deliv Rev

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2021 Jan 24

PMID 33486009

Citations 31

Authors

Teresa L Rapp

Cole A DeForest

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Light is a uniquely powerful tool for controlling molecular events in biology. No other external input (e.g., heat, ultrasound, magnetic field) can be so tightly focused or so highly regulated as a clinical laser. Drug delivery vehicles that can be photonically activated have been developed across many platforms, from the simplest "caging" of therapeutics in a prodrug form, to more complex micelles and circulating liposomes that improve drug uptake and efficacy, to large-scale hydrogel platforms that can be used to protect and deliver macromolecular agents including full-length proteins. In this Review, we discuss recent innovations in photosensitive drug delivery and highlight future opportunities to engineer and exploit such light-responsive technologies in the clinical setting.

Citing Articles

Development of NIR photocleavable nanoparticles with BDNF for vestibular neuron regeneration.

Abueva C, Yoon S, Carpena N, Ahn S, Chang S, Choi J J Nanobiotechnology. 2025; 23(1):209.

PMID: 40075449 PMC: 11905548. DOI: 10.1186/s12951-025-03298-x.

Harnessing stimuli-responsive biomaterials for advanced biomedical applications.

Liao Z, Liu T, Yao Z, Hu T, Ji X, Yao B Exploration (Beijing). 2025; 5(1):20230133.

PMID: 40040822 PMC: 11875454. DOI: 10.1002/EXP.20230133.

Small Fish, Big Answers: Zebrafish and the Molecular Drivers of Metastasis.

Martinez-Lopez M, Lopez-Gil J Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 26(3).

PMID: 39940643 PMC: 11817282. DOI: 10.3390/ijms26030871.

Cancer theragnostics: closing the loop for advanced personalized cancer treatment through the platform integration of therapeutics and diagnostics.

Sergeeva O, Luo L, Guiseppi-Elie A Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2025; 12:1499474.

PMID: 39898278 PMC: 11782185. DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1499474.

Polymersomes as Innovative, Stimuli-Responsive Platforms for Cancer Therapy.

Negut I, Bita B Pharmaceutics. 2024; 16(4).

PMID: 38675124 PMC: 11053450. DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics16040463.

References

Riley R, Day E . Gold nanoparticle-mediated photothermal therapy: applications and opportunities for multimodal cancer treatment. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2017; 9(4). PMC: 5474189. DOI: 10.1002/wnan.1449. View

Zhang Z, Jayakumar M, Shikha S, Zhang Y, Zheng X, Zhang Y . Modularly Assembled Upconversion Nanoparticles for Orthogonally Controlled Cell Imaging and Drug Delivery. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020; 12(11):12549-12556. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c00672. View

Yeldell S, Yang L, Lee J, Eberwine J, Dmochowski I . Oligonucleotide Probe for Transcriptome Analysis (TIVA) of Single Neurons with Minimal Background. ACS Chem Biol. 2020; 15(10):2714-2721. PMC: 8312762. DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.0c00499. View

Yun S, Kwok S . Light in diagnosis, therapy and surgery. Nat Biomed Eng. 2017; 1. PMC: 5476943. DOI: 10.1038/s41551-016-0008. View

Liu Y, Bhattarai P, Dai Z, Chen X . Photothermal therapy and photoacoustic imaging via nanotheranostics in fighting cancer. Chem Soc Rev. 2018; 48(7):2053-2108. PMC: 6437026. DOI: 10.1039/c8cs00618k. View

Ash C, Dubec M, Donne K, Bashford T . Effect of wavelength and beam width on penetration in light-tissue interaction using computational methods. Lasers Med Sci. 2017; 32(8):1909-1918. PMC: 5653719. DOI: 10.1007/s10103-017-2317-4. View

Szymanski W, Beierle J, Kistemaker H, Velema W, Feringa B . Reversible photocontrol of biological systems by the incorporation of molecular photoswitches. Chem Rev. 2013; 113(8):6114-78. DOI: 10.1021/cr300179f. View

Yao C, Wang P, Li X, Hu X, Hou J, Wang L . Near-Infrared-Triggered Azobenzene-Liposome/Upconversion Nanoparticle Hybrid Vesicles for Remotely Controlled Drug Delivery to Overcome Cancer Multidrug Resistance. Adv Mater. 2016; 28(42):9341-9348. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201503799. View

Zayat L, Salierno M, Etchenique R . Ruthenium(II) bipyridyl complexes as photolabile caging groups for amines. Inorg Chem. 2006; 45(4):1728-31. DOI: 10.1021/ic0512983. View

10.

Liu C, Ewert K, Wang N, Li Y, Safinya C, Qiao W . A multifunctional lipid that forms contrast-agent liposomes with dual-control release capabilities for precise MRI-guided drug delivery. Biomaterials. 2019; 221:119412. DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.119412. View

11.

Stanton-Humphreys M, Taylor R, McDougall C, Hart M, Brown C, Emptage N . Wavelength-orthogonal photolysis of neurotransmitters in vitro. Chem Commun (Camb). 2011; 48(5):657-9. DOI: 10.1039/c1cc15135e. View

12.

Canepari M, Nelson L, Papageorgiou G, Corrie J, Ogden D . Photochemical and pharmacological evaluation of 7-nitroindolinyl-and 4-methoxy-7-nitroindolinyl-amino acids as novel, fast caged neurotransmitters. J Neurosci Methods. 2001; 112(1):29-42. DOI: 10.1016/s0165-0270(01)00451-4. View

13.

Braasch D, Jensen S, Liu Y, Kaur K, Arar K, White M . RNA interference in mammalian cells by chemically-modified RNA. Biochemistry. 2003; 42(26):7967-75. DOI: 10.1021/bi0343774. View

14.

Zhan C, Wang W, Santamaria C, Wang B, Rwei A, Timko B . Ultrasensitive Phototriggered Local Anesthesia. Nano Lett. 2017; 17(2):660-665. PMC: 5469101. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03588. View

15.

Arora K, Herroon M, Al-Afyouni M, Toupin N, Rohrabaugh Jr T, Loftus L . Catch and Release Photosensitizers: Combining Dual-Action Ruthenium Complexes with Protease Inactivation for Targeting Invasive Cancers. J Am Chem Soc. 2018; 140(43):14367-14380. PMC: 6816764. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b08853. View

16.

Chaudhuri A, Mengji R, Venkatesh Y, Jana A, Singh N . An improved tumor-specific therapeutic strategy by the spatio-temporally controlled in situ formation of a Cu(ii) complex, leading to prompt cell apoptosis via photoactivation of a prodrug. Chem Commun (Camb). 2020; 56(33):4559-4562. DOI: 10.1039/d0cc00667j. View

17.

Hayashi K, Watanabe M, Iwasaki T, Shudou M, Uda R . Endosomal escape by photo-activated fusion of liposomes containing a malachite green derivative: a novel class of photoresponsive liposomes for drug delivery vehicles. Photochem Photobiol Sci. 2019; 18(6):1471-1478. DOI: 10.1039/c8pp00495a. View

18.

Paoletti P, Ellis-Davies G, Mourot A . Optical control of neuronal ion channels and receptors. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2019; 20(9):514-532. PMC: 6703956. DOI: 10.1038/s41583-019-0197-2. View

19.

Huynh C, Zheng Z, Nguyen M, McMillan A, Tonga G, Rotello V . Cytocompatible Catalyst-Free Photodegradable Hydrogels for Light-Mediated RNA Release To Induce hMSC Osteogenesis. ACS Biomater Sci Eng. 2021; 3(9):2011-2023. DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00796. View

20.

Ji Y, Yang J, Wu L, Yu L, Tang X . Photochemical Regulation of Gene Expression Using Caged siRNAs with Single Terminal Vitamin E Modification. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015; 55(6):2152-6. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201510921. View