Photoimmunotherapy using UCNPs

We recently showed the application of UCNPs for photodynamic therapy. This strategy may solve the fundamental problem of visible light penetration into the deep tissue to activate the photosensitizer. In this novel structure (antibody-photosensitizer-UCNP), briefly, the cell or virus could be targeted by antibody, and the UCNP will be activated by tissue-penetrable NIR at 980 nm. Subsequently, the photosensitizer will be activated by either energy transfer or visible light from UCNP, which results in single oxygen generation on the targeted cell or virus.