Facile synthesis of fluorinated nanophotosensitizers with self-supplied oxygen for efficient photodynamic therapy

Tumor hypoxia severely reduces the efficiency of photodynamic therapy (PDT) through the insufficient supply of oxygen. In this work, we reported on a design of fluorinated nanophotosensitizers (NPSs) prepared by a facile reprecipitation-encapsulation method, with the aim of addressing the issue of hypoxia. The fluorinated NPSs consisted of a hybrid particle core of perfluorosiloxane-polystyrene, doped with a fluorinated photosensitizer, and a biocompatible poly-1-lysine shell. Compared with non-fluorinated counterpart NPSs that are similarly prepared except for the replacement of perfluorosiloxane with alkoxysilane, the fluorinated NPSs saturated with O-2 exhibit approximately 3.5 fold higher singlet oxygen production yield and higher in vitro PDT efficiency due to the O-2 -carrying capability of intra-particle 'F-C' bonds.