Near-infrared light activated delivery platform for cancer therapy

•Synthesis routes are discussed, surface chemistry for bioapplications are summarized.•Selected strategies for therapeutic molecule encapsulation based on surface conditions are highlighted.•Various therapeutic applications using upconversion nanoparticle based NIR activated delivery platforms are provided.•Limitations associated with current progress and envisions of the prospective are discussed.

Cancer treatment using conventional drug delivery platforms may lead to fatal damage to normal cells. Among various intelligent delivery platforms, photoresponsive delivery platforms are becoming popular, as light can be easily focused and tuned in terms of power intensity, wavelength, and irradiation time, allowing remote and precise control over therapeutic payload release both spatially and temporally. This unprecedented controlled delivery manner is important to improve therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects. However, most of the existing photoactive delivery platforms require UV/visible excitation to initiate their function, which suffers from phototoxicity and low level of tissue penetration limiting their practical applications in biomedicine. With the advanced optical property of converting near infrared (NIR) excitation to localized UV/visible emission, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have emerged as a promising photoactive delivery platform that provides practical applications for remote spatially and temporally controlled release of therapeutic payload molecules using low phototoxic and high tissue penetration NIR light as the excitation source. This article reviews the state-of-the-art design, synthesis and therapeutic molecular payload encapsulation strategies of UCNP-based photoactive delivery platforms for cancer therapy. Challenges and promises for engineering of advanced delivery platforms are also highlighted.

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