Hypoxia-activated and indomethacin-mediated theranostic prodrug releasing drug on-demand for tumor imaging and therapy.

A smart theranostic prodrug IMC-FDU-TZBC-NO2, releasing active drug on-demand based on hypoxia-activated and indomethacin-mediated, for solid tumor imaging and efficient therapy was designed. This prodrug was constructed by conjugating chemotherapy drug 5-fluoro-2-deoxyuridine (FDU), targeting moiety indomethacin (IMC), and the hypoxic trigger 4-nitrobenzyl group to a fluorescent dye precursor, which was mediated by IMC and activated by NTR under hypoxic conditions. The fluorescent dye IMC-TZBCM was generated and FDU was released at the same time in tumor cells. The rates and amounts of FDU release and IMC-TZBCM generation were regulated by hypoxia status, and increased with increasing degree of hypoxia. Nevertheless, it is "locked" in normal cells. It combined the advantages of tumor targeting, diagnosis, and chemotherapy functions, showed excellent targeting ability to cancer cells, excellent stability in physiological conditions, high cellular uptake efficiency, and on-demand drug release behavior. The in vitro and in vivo assays demonstrated that IMC-FDU-TZBC-NO2 exhibits enhanced anticancer potency and low side effects. The novel targeted theranostic prodrug activated by hypoxia shows a great potential in cancer therapy.