Supramolecular organic frameworks improve the safety of clinically used porphyrin photodynamic agents and maintain their antitumor efficacy

Despite that photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been applied for the treatment of cancer and skin diseases for more than two decades, all clinically used photodynamic agents (PDAs) suffer the drawback of skin phototoxicity of PDAs, which requires patients to avoid exposure to natural light for weeks after treatment, but has so far lacked effective suppression methods. Here, we report that three-dimensional diamondoid supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs), that possess well-defined 2.1-nm porosity, can be used to suppress the skin phototoxicity of Photofrin, HiPorfin and Talaporfin, three porphyrin-based PDAs which clinically receive the most wide applications by injecting SOF after PDT, via an adsorption and retention mechanism. Fluorescence and dynamic light scattering experiments confirm that the SOFs have strong interaction with PDAs, and can adsorb PDAs at a micromolar concentration, whereas dialysis experiments support that the adsorption leads to an important retention effect. In vitro and in vivo experiments reveal that SOFs have high biocompatibility. Studies with healthy and tumor-bearing mouse models demonstrate that, when the PDAs are administrated at a dose comparable with the clinical one, SOF can remarkably suppress sunlight-induced skin phototoxicity, whereas the PDT efficacy of mice treated with SOF post-PDT is maintained. This work provides an efficient strategy for the improvement of the safety of clinically used PDAs.

Automated summary

In this study, three-dimensional diamondoid supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs) were found to effectively suppress the skin phototoxicity of clinically used photodynamic agents (PDAs). The results showed that SOFs have strong interactions with PDAs, can adsorb PDAs at a micromolar concentration, and have high biocompatibility. In animal experiments, SOFs were able to suppress sunlight-induced skin phototoxicity without affecting the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT).