Cancer therapy has always been an important issue in the field of life science and extensively studied. Phototherapy (including photothermal therapy and photodynamic therapy), one kind of cancer treatment benefits from high selectivity and low side effects, has attracted many researchers. However, how to decrease the laser power demand and enhance the therapeutic effects that is still an obstacle in the development of phototherapy.

Mitochondria play an important role in various of cell activities, which is not only the power center of cell, but also a key regulator of programmed cell death. Compared to the whole cell, mitochondria are more sensitive to the change of environment, as a result, they readily become dysfunctional and then induce cell death. Recently, Prof. Yang and coworkers reported mitochondria targeting magnetic nanoparticles for enhanced phototherapy by integrating photothermal agents, photosensitizers, and targeting molecules together. This work published in Small and became the hot article of the journal in July (http://www.materialsviewschina.com/2016/08/22397/). In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate the composite nanoparticles could effectively target mitochondria and exhibit brilliant treatment effect at low laser power density.Therefore, the mitochondria-targeting composite nanoparticles are expected to be an effective phototherapeutic platform.

See details: Ranran Guo, Haibao Peng, Ye Tian, Shun Shen, Wuli Yang*, Mitochondria-Targeting Magnetic Composite Nanoparticles for Enhanced Phototherapy of Cancer, Small, 2016, 12, 4541-4552.