Photothermal therapy (PTT), an emerging tumor treatment technology, has attracted tremendous interest, but excessive heat will cause damage to surrounding healthy tissues. Therefore, in situ temperature monitoring during PTT is of great importance to determine optimal treatment temperature and repair heat-damaged normal tissues.
A research team led by Prof. CHANG Jiang and Prof. WU Chengtie at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the preparation of multifunctional Nd-Ca-Si silicate glasses and glass/alginate composite hydrogels that not only have photothermal property but also emit fluorescence under 808-nm laser irradiation, and its fluorescence intensity is linearly correlated with in situ temperature. With this feature, optimal PTT temperature for effective tumor treatment with minimal normal tissue damage can be obtained. In addition, because of the bioactive silicate components, the composite hydrogel has bioactivity to repair heat damage caused by PTT. This implantable multifunctional material with unique temperature monitoring, photothermal function, and wound healing bioactivity can be used for localized thermal therapy.
This work was published in Science Advances. PhD student MA Lingling at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) (institute: Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; supervisor: CHANG Jiang) is the first author, Prof. CHANG is the corresponding author. Prof. WU and Prof. CHANG are also doctoral supervisors at UCAS.
