Lanthanide-Doped Upconversion Nanocarriers for Drug and Gene Delivery

• Main Authors: Gibok Lee, Yong Il Park
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-07-01
• Series: Nanomaterials
• Subjects: upconversion nanoparticles; nanocarriers; drug delivery; gene delivery; photolysis
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/8/7/511

Compared to traditional cancer treatments, drug/gene delivery is an advanced, safe, and efficient method. Nanoparticles are widely used as nanocarriers in a drug/gene delivery system due to their long circulation time and low multi-drug resistance. In particular, lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) that can emit UV and visible light by near-infrared (NIR) upconversion demonstrated more efficient and safer drug/gene delivery. Because of the low penetration depth of UV and visible light, a photoinduced reaction such as photocleavage or photoisomerization has proven restrictive. However, NIR light has high tissue penetration depth and stimulates the photoinduced reaction through UV and visible emissions from lanthanide-doped UCNPs. This review discusses the optical properties of UCNPs that are useful in bioapplications and drug/gene delivery systems using the UCNPs as a photoreaction inducer.