A hydrogen sulphide-responsive and depleting nanoplatform for cancer photodynamic therapy.

Hydrogen sulfide (HS) as an important biological gasotransmitter plays a pivotal role in many physiological and pathological processes. The sensitive and quantitative detection of HS level is therefore crucial for precise diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of various diseases but remains a huge challenge due to the lack of accurate and reliable analytical methods in vivo. In this work, we report a smart, HS-responsive and depleting nanoplatform (ZNNPs) for quantitative and real-time imaging of endogenous HS for early diagnosis and treatment of HS-associated diseases. We show that ZNNPs exhibit unexpected NIR conversion (F→ F) and ratiometric photoacoustic (PA/PA) signal responsiveness towards HS, allowing for sensitive and quantitative visualization of HS in acute hepatotoxicity, cerebral hemorrhage model as well as colorectal tumors in living mice. ZNNPs@FA simultaneously scavenges the mitochondrial HS in tumors leading to significant ATP reduction and severe mitochondrial damage, together with the activated photodynamic effect, resulting in efficient suppression of colorectal tumor growth in mice. We believe that this platform may provide a powerful tool for studying the vital impacts of HS in related diseases.