• • STT addresses the shallow tissue penetration of photothermal therapy (PTT) and the hypoxia/antioxidant limitations of photodynamic (PDT) and sonodynamic (SDT) therapies, enabling deep-tissue hyperthermia and mechanical effects for drug delivery and ablation.
• • Four distinct ultrasound-nanomaterial coupling mechanisms are identified: thermoelastic, thermoviscous, and plasmonic heating; nonradiative recombination and acousto-electric coupling; thermal vibrations in carbon and conjugated systems; and cavitation heating, each with specific material requirements and thermal conversion efficiencies.
• • Design principles for STT nanomaterials are categorized into pre-treatment (e.g., optimizing acoustic absorption and targeting), during-treatment (e.g., real-time thermal monitoring and controlled heat generation), and post-treatment (e.g., clearance and biodegradation) phases, emphasizing the need for quantitative conversion efficiency metrics.
• • Hybrid STT-sonodynamic/sonocatalytic platforms generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in addition to heat, potentially overcoming hypoxic tumor microenvironments and enhancing therapeutic efficacy, but require rigorous in vivo validation and scalable manufacturing under GMP.