Extended Data Fig. 7: PDT therapy of NP3 for concurrent inhibition of primary and metastasis tumours in 4T1 tumour-bearing mice model.
a, Treatments schedule of the antitumour and anti-metastatic study. The 4T1 tumour-bearing BALB/c mice were intravenous (i.v.) administered with PBS, Ce6, Ctrl-NP3, or NP3, at a Ce6 dose of 2.5 mg kg−1. The groups of PBS (L+), Ce6 (L+), Ctrl-NP3 (L+), and NP3 (L+) were exposed to light irradiation (660 nm, 200 mW/cm2, 5 min) after 6 h post injection. The groups of PBS (L-), Ce6 (L-), Ctrl-NP3 (L-), and NP3 (L-) without light irradiation were used as controls. b, Primary tumour growth curves of tumour-bearing BALB/c mice after different treatments. c, Photographs of 4T1 tumours dissected from the mice on day 21 after exposure to different treatments. d, Tumour weight after indicated treatments. e, Tumour inhibition rate of PBS (+), Ce6 (L-), Ctrl-NP3 (L-), NP3 (L-), Ce6 (L+), Ctrl-NP3 (L+), and NP3(L+) in 4T1 tumour-bearing mice model, respectively. f, H&E staining and TUNEL assays of the excised tumour tissues from different groups. Scale bars, 200 μm. g, Optical images of lung tissues stained with Bouin’s solution and the H&E staining of lung tissues at the end of treatments. The areas pointed by the arrows were tumour metastasis nodules. h, Quantification of the percentages of TUNEL positive area in tumours with different treatments in 4T1 tumour-bearing mice model. Three random fields were observed for each mouse under the microscope. i, The calculated lung metastasis nodes of the BALB/c mice at the end of treatments. j, Dynamic body weights of tumour-bearing mice. In b-e,i,j, n = 4 mice; in h, n = 3 mice. Data are presented as the mean ± s.d. Statistical significance was calculated via one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (b,d,e,h,i). In f,g, the representative images are shown from three mice per group.
