Tumor oxygenation level has been regarded as an attractive target to elevate the efficiency of
photodynamic therapy (
PDT). Cyanobacterial photosynthesis-mediated reversal of tumor hypoxia could enable an
oxygen-boosted
PDT, but is limited by scant penetration depth and efficiency of external light. Herein, aiming at the dual purposes of reducing
biological toxicity induced by long-term light irradiation and alleviating
hypoxia, we here introduce a novel-designed CaAl2O4:Eu,Nd blue persistent luminescence material (PLM) as the in vivo light source after pre-excited in vitro. The ingenious construction of blue-emitting PLM with "optical battery" characteristics activates cyanobacterial cells and
verteporfin simultaneously, which performs the successive
oxygen supply and
singlet oxygen generation without the long-term external excitation, resulting in the modulated
tumor hypoxic microenvironment and enhanced photodynamic
tumor proliferation inhibition efficiency. Both in vitro cellular assessment and in vivo
tumor evaluation results affirm the advantages of self-produced
oxygen PDT system and evidence the notable
antineoplastic outcome. This work develops an irradiation-free photosynthetic bacteria-based
PDT platform for the optimization of both
oxygen production capacity and light utilization efficiency in
cancer treatment, which is expected to promote the clinical progress of microbial-based photonic
therapy.