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The development of polymer‐based luminescent materials with efficient and switchable ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) under ambient conditions is of great importance but remains challenging. In this work, three new organic luminogens have been developed by attaching the ethyl benzoate to the nitrogen atoms of carbazole, 7H‐benzo[c]carbazole, and 7H‐dibenzo[c,g]carbazole via the Buchwald‐Hartwig coupling reaction, respectively. Subsequently, they are embedded into epoxy polymers through doping into the mixtures of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether and 1,3‐propylenediamine, followed by a thermal curing reaction. It is found that the resulting polymer films EB‐BCz@EP and EB‐2BCz@EP show unique photoactivated UOP properties. After UV light irradiation, their phosphorescence quantum yields are up to 7.6%, and the lifetimes reach 1.84 and 1.18 s, respectively. These observations suggest that it is possible to elevate the UOP lifetime without reducing the phosphorescence quantum yield by tuning the molecular structure of the guest luminogen. Upon thermal annealing, the photoactivated polymer films can recover to the pristine state, demonstrating switchable UOP characteristics of the polymer films in the air. Inspired by these exciting results, the EB‐2BCz@EP has been successfully explored as a transparent polymer film for erasable light printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real‐time tracking of drug release from nanomedicine in vivo is crucial for optimizing its therapeutic efficacy in clinical settings, particularly in dosage control and determining the optimal therapeutic window. However, most current real‐time tracking systems require a tedious synthesis and purification process. Herein, a supramolecular nano‐tracker (SNT) capable of real‐time tracking of drug release in vivo based on non‐covalent host‐guest interactions is presented. By integrating multiple cavities into a single nanoparticle, SNT achieves co‐loading of drugs and probes while efficiently quenching the photophysical properties of the probe through host‐guest complexation. Moreover, SNT is readily degraded under hypoxic tumor tissues, leading to the simultaneous release of drugs and probes and the fluorescence recovery of probes. With this spatial and temporal consistency in drug loading and fluorescence quenching, as well as drug release and fluorescence recovery, SNT successfully achieves real‐time tracking of drug release in vivo (Pearson r = 0.9166, R2 = 0.8247). Furthermore, the released drugs can synergize effectively with fluorescent probes upon light irradiation, achieving potent chemo‐photodynamic combination therapy in 4T1‐bearing mice with a significantly improved survival rate (33%), providing a potential platform to significantly advance the development of nanomedicine and achieve optimal therapeutic effects in the clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of polymer‐based luminescent materials with efficient photoactivated ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) is of great importance but very challenging. Herein, a new class of organic phosphorescent luminogens is constructed by attaching phenyl rings and/or ethyl benzoates to the nitrogen atoms of a planar aromatic heterocycle pyrrolodiindole (PDI). The compounds show a significant elevation in phosphorescence emission capability after incorporating the ester group(s). However, they cannot produce room‐temperature phosphorescence in the crystalline state. These observations are identified to be associated with the formation of dimers and excimers and the motions of substituents within the molecules. In this context, the PDI derivatives are doped into epoxy polymers with compact and permanent 3D covalent networks. The resulting polymer films show reversible photoactivated UOP under ambient conditions, with quantum yields and lifetimes of up to 24.4% and 2.03 s, respectively, thereby enabling high‐quality and erasable light printing and multi‐level anti‐counterfeiting applications. In addition, they also exhibit excellent water and chemical resistance. This work is conducive to understanding the generation and decay mechanisms of the triplet excitons of organic luminophores with planar aromatic heterocycles in the crystalline state and provides a direction for the development of high‐performance photoactivated UOP materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although adoptive transfer of therapeutic cells to cancer patients is demonstrated with great success and fortunately approved for the treatment of leukemia and B‐cell lymphoma, potential issues, including the unclear mechanism, complicated procedures, unfavorable therapeutic efficacy for solid tumors, and side effects, still hinder its extensive applications. The explosion of nanotechnology recently has led to advanced development of novel strategies to address these challenges, facilitating the design of nano‐therapeutics to improve adoptive cell therapy (ACT) for cancer treatment. In this review, the emerging nano‐enabled approaches, that design multiscale artificial antigen‐presenting cells for cell proliferation and stimulation in vitro, promote the transducing efficiency of tumor‐targeting domains, engineer therapeutic cells for in vivo imaging, tumor infiltration, and in vivo functional sustainability, as well as generate tumoricidal T cells in vivo, are summarized. Meanwhile, the current challenges and future perspectives of the nanostrategy‐based ACT for cancer treatment are also discussed in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CRISPR/dCas9 systems can precisely control endogenous gene expression without interrupting host genomic sequence and have provided a novel and feasible strategy for the treatment of cancers at the transcriptional level. However, development of CRISPR/dCas9‐based anti‐cancer therapeutics remains challenging due to the conflicting requirements for the design of the delivery system: a cationic and membrane‐binding surface facilitates the tumor accumulation and cellular uptake of the CRISPR/dCas9 system, but hinders the circulating stability in vivo. Here, a multistage delivery nanoparticle (MDNP) that can achieve tumor‐targeted delivery of CRISPR/dCas9 systems and restore endogenous microRNA (miRNA) expression in vivo is described. MDNP is designed as a core‐shell structure in which the shell is made of a responsive polymer that endows MDNP with the capability to present different surface properties in response to its surrounding microenvironment, allowing the MNDP overcoming multiple physiological barriers and delivering the payload to tumor tissues with an optimal efficiency. Systemic administration of MDNP/dCas9‐miR‐524 to tumor‐bearing mice achieved effective upregulation of miR‐524 in tumors, leading to the simultaneous interferences of multiple signal pathways related to cancer cell proliferation and presenting remarkable tumor growth retardation, suggesting the feasibility of utilizing MDNP to achieve tumor‐targeting delivery of CRISPR/dCas9 with sufficient levels to realize its therapeutic effects. A nonviral clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/nuclease‐inactivated CRISPR associated protein 9 (dCas9) delivery system based on multistage delivery nanoparticle (MDNP) is developed, with the capability to present different surface properties in response to its surrounding microenvironment, allowing the MNDP to overcome multiple physiological barriers and achieve tumor‐targeted delivery of CRISPR/dCas9 systems to suppress tumor growth in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]