Photodynamic Therapy: Light‐Up Probe for Targeted and Activatable Photodynamic Therapy with Real‐Time In Situ Reporting of Sensitizer Activation and Therapeutic Responses (Adv. Funct. Mater. 42/2015)

On page 6586, B. Z. Tang, B. Liu and co-workers synthesize a photosensitizer (PS) probe with a built-in apoptosis sensor for targeted cancer cell ablation and real-time monitoring of PS activation and therapeutic response. The probe is non-emissive in aqueous media, and, when selectively taken up by cancer cells, can be cleaved to release the apoptosis sensor, turning on red fluorescence. Upon light irradiation cell apoptosis is induced, and the apoptosis sensor is cleaved to yield intense green fluorescence.