Method of targeting hydrophobic drugs to vascular lesions

A method of targeting drug delivery to a vascular lesion, comprising:

• providing a core-shell carrier comprising a lipophilic shell layer that is unstable to a plasma protein;
• providing a non-photodynamic hydrophobic drug linked to a porphyrin and loaded into the core-shell carrier, the porphyrin comprising a deuteroporphyrin IX diester;
• and
• administering the linked drug/porphyrin-loaded core-shell carrier into the bloodstream of a patient in need thereof;
• wherein,
• when the core-shell carrier contacts a plasma protein in the patient's bloodstream, the core-shell carrier is disrupted, releasing the linked drug/porphyrin, which then forms a complex with a plasma protein that may be the same as or different than the plasma protein that caused the disruption of the core-shell carrier;
• wherein the linked drug/porphyrin comprises a biocompatible, biodegradable linker joining the drug to the porphyrin;
• and
• wherein the core-shell carrier is selected from the group consisting of a plasma protein unstable micelle, a plasma protein unstable liposome and a plasma protein unstable polymerosome.