Mild-Sunlight-Activated Safe Photodynamic Therapy Using On-Off Polymer Photosensitizers in Wearable Microneedle Patch
) excitation, and feature an intrinsic "on-off" ROS generation mechanism that confines ROS generation to lesions, even when photosensitizers diffuse into surrounding healthy tissues. Microneedle-enabled deep photosensitizer delivery and excitation by the near-infrared component of sunlight together allow self-administered treatment of deep-seated lesions without scheduled clinic visits. Importantly, the SunPDT patch's triple-safety design, low-intensity mild sunlight excitation, local delivery of photosensitizer by microneedles, and an intrinsic "on-off" ROS generation mechanism, eliminate post-treatment prolonged light avoidance, ensuring bio-safe PDT. Using female psoriatic mice as a proof-of-concept model, our "on-off" SunPDT microneedle patches achieve high therapeutic efficacy and patient-friendly, self-administered treatment, and outperform clinical Protoporphyrin IX patches, which demonstrate weaker effects and require prolonged light shielding. Therefore, this study establishes a promising design for a lifestyle-integrated PDT platform.
Authors
- Chunxu He
- Bin Liu
- Quli Fan
- Zhen Li
- Yufu Tang
Institutions
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-05-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72550-1
- Primary Topic
- Photodynamic Therapy Research Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00