Recent progresses in combination cancer therapy using cyanine dye-based nanoparticles

Surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are traditional methods for cancer treatment. With the development of materials science, photodynamic, photothermal, and sonodynamic therapies have been established over the past few years. Despite these advances, the development of novel and efficient cancer treatment protocols remains highly desirable. Recently, combination therapy has emerged as a powerful tool for achieving this goal. In this context, cyanine-nanoparticles have attracted considerable interest. Cyanine dyes have high molar absorptivity, narrow absorption/emission bands, and also excellent biocompatibility. This has meant that they have been widely used in biomedical imaging and therapy. Cyanine nanoparticles assembled from cyanine dyes and amphiphilic polymers or liposomes are endowed with high biocompatibility and long-term circulation for cancer combination therapy. A plethora of cyanine–nanoparticle-based combination therapy systems have been reported, and research in this discipline continues to expand. In this review, we aim to summarize recent advances in the combination therapy of cancers using cyanine nanoparticles over the last five years (i.e., from 2018 to 2023), with an emphasis on the structures of cyanine dyes, design concepts, and combination strategies. Personal insights and challenges in this field are also discussed. We expect that this review will inspire creative progress in combination therapies based on cyanine nanoparticles and facilitate the investigation of future clinical applications.