• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.420.2-420.2
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• 2016

Various fields have been paid attention to upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) because of its unique optical properties. Moreover, to use the UC luminescent techniques through cell images for identified apoptosis/necrosis of cancer cells have been performed. They have been studied for a versatile biomedical application such as a biosensing tool, or delivery of active forms of medicines inside living cells. UCNPs have distinctive characteristics such as photoluminescence, special emission, low background fluorescence signal and good colloidal stability, which have many advantages compared with the organic dyes and quantum dots. UCNPs have not only a great potential for imaging (UC luminescence) but also therapies (photo-thermal therapy, PTT and photo-dynamic therapy, PDT) in cancer diagnostics. Therefore, we report the enhancement of upconversion red emission in NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ nanoparticles, synthesized via solid-state method with the thermal decomposition of trifluoroacetate as precursors and organic solvent at a high boiling point. The UCNPs have an emission in the field of near infrared wavelength, cubic shape and nano-size in length. In this study, we will further investigate it for cancer therapy with NIR optical detection onto the solid substrate.

• Medical Lasers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2021

In cancer therapy, it is often desirable to use precision medicine that involves treatments of high specificity. One such treatment is the use of photo-triggered theranostic nanoparticles. These nanoparticles make it possible to visualize and treat tumors specifically in a controlled manner with a single injection. Several novel and powerful photo-triggered theranostic nanoparticles have been developed. These range from small organic dyes, semiconducting and biopolymers, to inorganic nanomaterials such as iron-oxide or gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and upconversion nanoparticles. Using photo-triggered theranostic nanoparticles and localized irradiation, complete tumor ablation can be achieved without causing significant toxicity to normal tissue. Given the great advances and promising future of theranostic nanoparticles, this review highlights the progress that has been made in the past couple of years, the current challenges faced and offers a future perspective.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.138-146
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• 2018

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a great potential approach for the localized tumor removal with fewer metastatic potentials and side effects in treating the disease. In the treatment process, a photosensitizer (PS) that absorbs a light energy to generate reactive oxygen is essential. In general, a visible light is used as a light source of PDT, so that side effects from the light source are inevitable. For this reason, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) using near-infrared (NIR) as an excitation source are attracting attention in the field of disease diagnosis and treatment. UCNPs have the low cytotoxicity and phototoxicity, and also advantages such as deep tissue penetration and low background autofluorescence. For PDT, UCNPs should be combined with a PS which absorbs the light energy from UCNPs and transfers it to the surrounding oxygen to produce reactive oxygen. In addition, the therapeutic efficacy can be improved by modifying nanoparticle surfaces, adding anti-cancer drugs, or combining with photothermal therapy (PTT). In this review, we summarize the recent research to improve the efficiency of PDT using UCNPs.