Application of Nanomaterials in Bioimaging Guided Photodynamic Therapy

With the development of nanotechnology, developing novel nanoplatforms simultaneously integrating bioimaging and treatment for precise cancer theranostics has become a research hotspot. As one of the emerging therapies, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has many advantages such as high specificity, controllability and low side effects, which has attracted extensive research attention. Recently, PDT based on nanomaterials has overcome the limitations of traditional PDT such as low stability, low tumor-targeting ability and phototoxicity, and has shown great application potential. Furthermore, the technologies of bioimaging and PDT can be integrated into a single nanoplatform to realize cancer theranostics. So far, a variety of imaging modes have been applied to the research of PDT based on nanomaterials, such as fluorescence imaging, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer tomography (CT) imaging, ultrasound (US) imaging, photoacoustic (PA) imaging, positron emission tomography ( PET) imaging, and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging. This article summarizes the use of multifunctional nanomaterials for bioimaging-guided PDT. Finally, the current challenges and prospects for future development are discussed.