Cancer therapy is routinely performed in the clinic to cure cancer and
control its progression, wherein therapeutic agents are generally used. To reduce side
effects, protherapeutic agents that can be activated by overexpressed cancer biomarkers
are under development. However, these agents still face certain extent of off-target
activation in normal tissues, stimulating the interest to design external-stimuli activatable
protherapeutics. In this regard, photoactivatable protherapeutic agents have been utilized
for cancer treatments. However, because of the intrinsic features of photolabile moieties,
most photoactivatable protherapeutic agents only respond to ultraviolet?visible light,
limiting their in vivo applications. Thus, protherapeutic agents that can be activated by
near-infrared (NIR) light with minimal phototoxicity and increased tissue penetration
are highly desired....