Light-activated drug release from prodrug nanoassemblies by structure destruction.

We report here a novel light-triggered nanosystem based on co-assembling nanoaggregates (NAs) of lipophilic photosensitizers and lipophilic prodrugs containing multiple thioethers. Upon laser irradiation, the oxidization of the multiple thioethers by photosensitizer-generated singlet oxygen could rapidly destroy the NA structure, resulting in faster drug release than those containing a single thioether.