Ziling Zeng

Nanyang Technological University | ntu · Division of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE)

Cancer immunotherapy has received tremendous attention in the past decade owing to its clinical successes with the use of immune‐checkpoint inhibition and chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy. However, only a small proportion of the patients have benefited from these immunotherapeutic drugs, which has raised concerns about the low response rate...

Afterglow imaging with long-lasting luminescence after cessation of light excitation provides opportunities for ultrasensitive molecular imaging; however, the lack of biologically compatible afterglow agents has impeded exploitation in clinical settings. This study presents a generic approach to transforming ordinary optical agents (including fluor...

Ein organischer photodynamischer Nanoinhibitor mit spezifischem Antagonismus gegenüber Carboanhydrase IX (CA‐IX) wurde entwickelt, um die Hypoxie, die traditionelle photodynamische Therapie mit sich bringt, zu minimieren. Die Integration einer pH‐Regulierung, die durch die CA‐IX‐Inhibition vermittelt wird, in den gezielten photodynamischen Prozess...

Despite its great potential in cancer treatment, photodynamic therapy (PDT) often exacerbates hypoxia and subsequently compromises its therapeutic efficacy. To overcome this issue, an organic photodynamic nanoinhibitor (OPNi) is synthesized to have additional ability to counteract carbonic anhydrase IX (CA‐IX), a molecular target in hypoxia‐mediate...

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging in the second near‐infrared (NIR‐II) window (1000–1700 nm) holds great promise for deep‐tissue diagnosis due to the reduced light scattering and minimized tissue absorption; however, exploration of such a noninvasive imaging technique is greatly constrained by the lack of biodegradable NIR‐II absorbing agents. Herein, the...

Despite the great promises of sonodynamic therapy (SDT) in combination cancer therapy, its clinical applications are hindered by the lack of efficient sonosensitizers and “always‐on” pharmacological activities of therapeutic agents. Herein, we report the development of semiconducting polymers as efficient sonosensitizers and further development of...

Nanomedicine holds promise to enhance cancer immunotherapy; however, its potential to elicit highly specific anti-tumor immunity without compromising immune tolerance has yet to be fully unlocked. This study develops deep-tissue activatable cancer sono-immunotherapy based on the discovery of a semiconducting polymer that generates sonodynamic singl...

Checkpoint immunotherapies have been combined with other therapeutic modalities to increase patient response rate and improve therapeutic outcome, which however exacerbates immune-related adverse events and requires to be carefully implemented in a narrowed therapeutic window. Strategies for precisely controlled combinational cancer immunotherapy c...

Activatable phototheranostics holds promise for precision cancer treatment owing to the “turn‐on” signals and therapeutic effects. However, most activatable phototheranostic probes only possess photodynamic therapy (PDT) or photothermal therapy (PTT), which suffer from poor therapeutic efficacy due to deficient cellular oxygen and complex tumor mic...

Activatable phototheranostics holds promise for precision cancer treatment owing to the “turn‐on” signals and therapeutic effects. However, most activatable phototheranostic probes only possess photodynamic therapy (PDT) or photothermal therapy (PTT), which suffer from poor therapeutic efficacy due to deficient cellular oxygen and complex tumor mic...

The real-time, dynamic optical visualization of lesions and margins ensures not only complete resection of the malignant tissues but also better preservation of the vital organs/tissues during surgical procedures. Most imaging probes with an "always-on" signal encounter high background noise due to their non-specific accumulation in normal tissues....

Immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) has been one of the major hurdles to cancer immunotherapy. Protease inhibitors have emerged to be a potential way to modulate intratumoral metabolic processes to reprogram TME, which however suffer from the limited efficacy and off-targeted side effects. We herein report smart nano-proteolysis targetin...

Immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) has been one of the major hurdles to cancer immunotherapy. Protease inhibitors have emerged to be a potential way to modulate intratumoral metabolic processes to reprogram TME, which however suffer from the limited efficacy and off-targeted side effects. We herein report smart nano-proteolysis targetin...

Despite the importance of rapid and accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, current diagnostic methods are static and unable to distinguish between viable/nonviable virus or directly reflect viral replication activity. Real-time imaging of protease activity specific to SARS-CoV-2 can overcome these issues but remains...

Molecular activatable probes with near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence play a critical role in in vivo imaging of biomarkers for drug screening and disease diagnosis. With structural diversity and high fluorescence quantum yields, hemicyanine dyes have emerged as a versatile scaffold for construction of activatable optical probes. This review presents...

Molecular activatable probes with near‐infrared (NIR) fluorescence play a critical role in in vivo imaging of biomarkers for drug screening and disease diagnosis. With structural diversity and high fluorescence quantum yields, hemicyanine dyes have emerged as a versatile scaffold for construction of activatable optical probes. This review presents...

Nanomedicine offers an effective way to regulate the balance between cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and suppressive regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs), which however has been rarely exploited for cancer immunotherapy. We herein report a charge-reversal polymer nano-modulator (SPDMCN) activated by tumor microenvironment (TME) for photodynamic immunoth...

Charge-reversal polymer nano-modulators that can be specifically activated by acidic tumor microenvironment to release immunomodulator and enhance tumor penetration are developed for combinational photodynamic cancer immunotherapy. Abstract Nanomedicine can regulate the balance between cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and suppressive regulatory T ly...

Immunometabolic intervention has been applied to treat cancer via inhibition of certain enzymes associated with intratumoral metabolism. However, small-molecule inhibitors and genetic modification often suffer from insufficiency and off-target side effects. Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) provide an alternative way to modulate protein home...

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) has attracted increasing attention both in basic research and clinical applications. PAI in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window shows deeper penetration depth, better spatial resolution, higher maximum permissible exposure, and lower background noise than PAI in the first near-infrared (NIR-I) window. By introducing...

Tumor immunometabolism contributes substantially to tumor proliferation and immune cell activity, and thus plays a crucial role in the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Modulation of immunometabolism to boost cancer immunotherapy is mostly based on small‐molecule inhibitors, which often encounter the issues of off‐target adverse effects, drug resis...

Semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) have gained more and more attention in biomedical applications. However, the preparation of SPNs is usually limited by nanoprecipitation in the presence of amphiphilic copolymers, which encounters the issue of dissociation. As an alternative for SPNs, grafted semiconducting polymer amphiphiles (SPAs) comp...