One‐Dimensional Fe2P Acts as a Fenton Agent in Response to NIR II Light and Ultrasound for Deep Tumor Synergetic Theranostics

The stringent reaction conditions for an effective Fenton reaction (pH range of 3–4) hinders its application in cancer therapy. Therefore, how to improve the efficiency of the Fenton reaction in a tumor site has been the main obstacle in chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Herein, we report biocompatible one‐dimensional (1D) ferrous phosphide nanorods (FP NRs) with ultrasound (US)‐ and photothermal (PT)‐enhanced Fenton properties and excellent photothermal conversion efficiency (56.6 %) in the NIR II window, showing synergistic therapeutic properties. Additionally, the high photothermal conversion efficiency and excellent traverse relaxivity (277.79 mm ^?1 s^?1) of the FP NRs means they are excellent photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents. This is the first report on exploiting the response of metallic phosphides to NIR II laser (1064 nm) and ultrasound to improve the CDT effect with a high therapeutic effect and PA/MR imaging.     

Folate-targeted co-delivery polymersomes for efficient photo-chemo-antiangiogenic therapy against breast cancer and in vivo evaluation via OCTA/NIRF dual-modal imaging

Intelligent nanoplatform that combines multimodal imaging and therapeutic effects holds great promise for precise and efficient cancer therapy. Herein, folate-targeted polymersomes with stimuli-responsiveness were fabricated and evaluated by near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) dual-imaging for photo-chemo-antiangiogenic therapy against cancer. The folate-targeted polymersomes (FA-MIT-SIPS) not only integrated ammonium bicarbonate (ABC) and mitoxantrone (MIT) into their hydrophilic cavity but also encapsulated indocyanine green (ICG) and sorafenib (SOR) within their hydrophobic layer. NIRF imaging demonstrated that FA-MIT-SIPS effectively accumulated and retained in the tumors. Upon 808 nm laser irradiation, the ICG produced hyperthermia and reactive oxygen species (ROS) for efficient photothermal and photodynamic therapy. In addition, the decomposition of ABC in responsive to acidic tumor environment and ICG-induced hyperthermia accelerated drug release. The released MIT accumulated in nucleus to inhibit DNA synthesis, while the released SOR destructed tumor vascularization. Notably, OCTA imaging was applied to observe the tumor blood flow upon the combination therapy, demonstrating that FA-MIT-SIPS obviously decreased the vessels area density. Moreover, the synergistic photo-chemo-antiangiogenic therapy of FA-MIT-SIPS achieved excellent antitumor effect with 40% of the 4T1 tumor-bearing mice being completely cured without recurrence. The multifunctional polymersomes provide a promising dual-modal imaging-evaluated synergistic strategy for tumor therapy.     

Recent advances in photothermal and RNA interfering synergistic therapy

As a new treatment technique,photothermal therapy(PTT) has aroused worldwide attention in cancer treatment,mainly due to its excellent absorption ability,easy regulation,and biodegradability.Photothermal conversion materials with enhanced permeability and retention effect can be targeted easily to tumor tissue.They can accumulate efficiently to tumor tissues and allow normal tissues and organs not to be affected by temperature,thus significantly helping to reduce the systemic toxicity and improve the antitumor effect.However,PTT alo ne often suffers from the rapeutic resistance and reduced therapeutic efficacy,due to photothermal nanomaterial-mediated fundamental cellular defense mechanism of heat shock response,which could be inhibited by small interfering RNA(siRNA).Nevertheless,photothermal conversion materials as an excellent siRNA delivery carrier may conside rably enhance the delivery efficiency of siRNA.Therefore,photothermal and RNA interfering(RNAi) synergistic therapy has recently aroused extensive attention in tumor treatment.In this review,we mainly summarize the recent advances of photothermal and RNAi synergistic therapy,including some synergistic therapeutic nanoplatforms of inorganic and organic photothermal materials and other combined therapies such as combining with small molecular antitumor agents or PDT/imaging.The combination of various treatment techniques may considerably improve the synergistic therapeutic effect of PTT and RNAi in the treatment of cancers.     

One-pot photoreduction to prepare NIR-absorbing plasmonic gold nanoparticles tethered by amphiphilic polypeptide copolymer for synergistic photothermal-chemotherapy

We developed one-pot photoreduction strategy to fabricate the NIR-absorbing plasmonic PLC-b-PEO@Au NPs. It possessed strong NIR absorption at 700-1100 nm, an ultrahigh photothermal conversion efficiency of 62.1%, and good photostability.     

NIR light-induced tumor phototherapy using ICG delivery system based on platelet-membrane-camouflaged hollow bismuth selenide nanoparticles

Near-infrared (NIR) light-triggered photothermal therapy (PTT) is a promising treatment strategy for treating cancer. The combination of nanotechnology and NIR has been widely applied. However, the therapeutic efficacy of the drug-delivery system depends on their ability to avoid phagocytosis of endothelial system, cross the biological barriers, prolong circulation life, localize and rapidly release the therapeutic at target sites. In this work, we designed a platelet membrane (PM)-camouflaged hollow mesoporous bismuth selenide nanoparticles (BS NPs) loading with indocyanine green (ICG) (PM@BS-ICG NPs) to achieve the above advantages. PM-coating has active tumor-targeting ability which could prevent drug leakage and provide drug long circulation, causing drug delivery systems to accumulate in tumor sites effectively. Moreover, as a type of the photothermal sensitizers, BS NPs are used as the inner cores to improve ICG stability and are served as scaffolds to enhance the hardness of this drug delivery system. For one hand, the thermal vibration of BS NPs under NIR laser irradiation causes tumor inhibition through hyperthermia. For another hand, this hyperthermia process could damage PM and let ICG rapid release from PM@BS-ICG NPs. The in vitro and in vivo results showed that this biomimetic nano-drug delivery system exhibits obvious antitumor activity which has good application prospect.     

Redox-responsive micelles integrating catalytic nanomedicine and selective chemotherapy for effective tumor treatment

Chemotherapy is one of the most conventional modalities for cancer therapy. However, the high multidrug resistance of tumor cells still limited the clinical application of current chemotherapy. Considering the ability of nitric oxide (NO) to modulate potent P-glycoprotein to inhibit multi-drug resistance, a synergistic methodology combining chemotherapy and sustained NO generation is an ideal way to further promote the chemotherapy. Herein, a multi-functional micelle with tumor-selective chemotherapy driven by redox-triggered doxorubicin (DOX) release and drug resistance inhibition based on intracellular NO generation was fabricated for effective tumor treatment. The micelle consists of DOX as core, arginine/glucose oxidase (Arg/GOx) as shell and redox-responsive disulfide bond as a linker, which is denoted as micelle-DOX-Arg-GOx. The Arg serves as the biological precursor of nitric oxide for inhibition of multi-drug resistance to promote chemotherapy and GOx catalyzes glucose to produce hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) for increasing the generation of NO. Moreover, the glucose supply could be simultaneously blocked by the catalytic process, which further enhanced therapeutic efficiency. This micelle requests a tumor-specific microenvironment (a considerable amount of GSH) to perform synergistic therapeutics including chemotherapy, starvation therapy (catalytic medicine), and gas therapy for tumor treatment, which resulted in significant cytotoxicity to tumor tissue.     

A photosensitizer-loaded zinc oxide-polydopamine core-shell nanotherapeutic agent for photodynamic and photothermal synergistic therapy of cancer cells

In clinical cancer research,it is quite promising to develop multimodal synergistic therapeutic strategies.Photodynamic and photothermal synergistic therapy is a very desirable multimodal therapy strategy.Herein,we report a facile and simple method to construct a nanotherapeutic agent for photodynamic and photothermal therapy.This nanotherapeutic agent(ZnO@Ce6-PDA)is composed of a ZnO nanoparticle core,an interlayer of photosensitizer chlorin e6(Ce6)and an outer layer of polydopamine(PDA).Due to the existence of Ce6,the ZnO@Ce6-PDA can efficiently generate singlet oxygen(1O2)under 660 nm laser irradiation.Moreover,the ZnO@Ce6-PDA can serve as a photothermal agent,because of the excellent photothermal conversion efficiency of the PDA coating layer in the presence of 780 nm laser.Experiment results demonstrated that the designed nanotherapeutic agent had outstanding phototoxicity upon the combination of laser irradiation at 660 and 780 nm.Thus,our work proves that the ZnO@Ce6-PDA is a promising photodynamic/photothermal dual-modal nanotherapeutic agent for enhanced cancer therapy.     

HDAC6 inhibitor loaded bimetallene nanosheets with antagonizing thermoresistance for augmented mild photothermal therapy

Photothermal therapy(PTT) induces thermoresistance through cellular heat shock response, which impairs the therapeutic efficacy of the PTT. To resolve this problem, we developed a photothermal theranostics(denoted as PMH), which integrated the photothermal conversion agent of PdMo bimetallene with histone deacetylase 6(HDAC6) selected inhibitor(ACY-1215), showing the synergistic antitumor effect both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, under the photoacoustic imaging(PA) navigation, the relea...     

Strategies for efficient photothermal therapy at mild temperatures: Progresses and challenges

Photothermal therapy(PTT), typically ablates tumors via hyperthermia generated from photothermal agents(PTAs) under laser irradiation, has attracted great attentions in the past decades. Unfortunately,longstanding, frequent and high-power density laser irradiations are needed to maintain the hyperthermal status(>50 °C) for efficient therapy, which will damage the skin and nearby healthy tissues. Suppressing cancer cells with a mild temperature elevation is more attractive and feasible for PTT...     

Dual-targeted photothermal agents for enhanced cancer therapy

Photothermal therapy, in which light is converted into heat and triggers local hyperthermia to ablate tumors, presents an inherently specific and noninvasive treatment for tumor tissues. In this area, the development of efficient photothermal agents (PTAs) has always been a central topic. Although many efforts have been made on the investigation of novel molecular architectures and photothermal materials over the past decades, PTAs can cause severe damage to normal tissues because of the poor tumor aggregate ability and high irradiation density. Recently, dual-targeted photothermal agents (DTPTAs) provide an attractive strategy to overcome these problems and enhance cancer therapy. DTPTAs are functionalized with two classes of targeting units, including tumor environment targeting sites, tumor targeting sites and organelle targeting sites. In this perspective, typical targeted ligands and representative examples of photothermal therapeutic agents with dual-targeted properties are systematically summarized and recent advances using DTPTAs in tumor therapy are highlighted.

In this perspective, the design, applications and potential directions of photothermal therapeutic agents with dual-targeted properties are systematically described.     

Self-enhanced photothermal-chemodynamic antibacterial agents for synergistic anti-infective therapy

Cu_2-xS nanostructures have been intensively studied as outstanding chemodynamic therapy (CDT) and good photothermal therapy (PTT) antibacterial agents due to their highly efficient Cu(Ⅰ)-initiated Fenton-like catalytic activity and good photothermal conversion property. However, they still suffer from shortage of Cu(Ⅰ) supply in the long-term and comparatively low inherent photothermal conversion efficiency. Herein, we constructed a self-enhanced synergistic PTT/CDT nanoplatform (Cu_1.94S@MPN) by coating Cu_1.94S nanoparticles with Fe(Ⅲ)/tannic acid based metal-polyphenol networks (MPN). Activated by the acidic bacterial infection microenvironment, Cu_1.94S@MPN could be decomposed to continuously release Cu(Ⅱ), Fe(Ⅲ) ions and tannic acid. As the result of tannic acid-involved Cu and Fe redox cycling, Cu(Ⅰ)/Fe(Ⅱ)-rich CDT could be achieved through the highly accelerated catalytic Fenton/Fenton-like reactions. More importantly, experimental results demonstrated that Cu_1.94S@MPN exhibited both excellent photothermal antibacterial and photothermal-enhanced CDT properties to eradicate bacteria in vitro and in vivo. Overall, this novel nanotherapeutics has great potential to become a clinic candidate for anti-infective therapy in future.     

Portable multi-amplified temperature sensing for tumor exosomes based on MnO2/IR780 nanozyme with high photothermal effect and oxidase-like activity

Efficient determination of tumor exosomes using portable devices is crucial for the establishment of facile and convenient early cancer diagnostic methods. However, it is still challenging to effectively amplify the detection signal to achieve tumor exosomes detection with high sensitivity by portable devices. To address this issue, we developed a portable multi-amplified temperature sensing strategy for highly sensitive detecting tumor exosomes based on multifunctional manganese dioxide/IR780 nanosheets (MnO₂/IR780 NSs) nanozyme with high oxidase-like activity and enhanced photothermal performance. Inspiringly, MnO₂/IR780 NSs were synthesized via a facile one-step method with mild experimental conditions, which not only exhibited a stronger photothermal effect than that of MnO₂ but also showed excellent oxidase-like activity that can catalyze the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to generate TMB oxide (oxTMB) with a robust photothermal property, thus conjoining with MnO₂/IR780 NSs to further enhance the temperature signal. The present assay enables highly sensitive determination of tumor exosomes with the detection limit down to 5.1 × 10³ particles/mL, which was comparable or superior to those of the most previously reported sensors. Furthermore, detection of tumor exosomes spiked in biological samples was successfully realized. More importantly, our method showed the recommendable portability, robust applicability, and easy manipulation. By taking advantages of these features, this high-performance photothermal sensor offered a promising alternative means for nondestructive early cancer diagnosis and treatment efficacy evaluation.     

铁掺杂的聚2-硝基-1,4-苯二胺纳米球的制备及在光热/光动力/化学动力学肿瘤治疗中的应用

肿瘤微环境(TME)的复杂性,使得单一治疗方式很难实现完全治愈。 为此,构建了一种负载吲哚菁绿(ICG)的铁掺杂的聚2-硝基-1,4-苯二胺多功能纳米球Fe-PNPD-ICG(FPIs),用于光热(PTT)/光动力(PDT)/化学动力学(CDT)的联合治疗。 在808 nm激光器照射下,ICG作为光敏剂可以产生单线态氧,铁掺杂的聚2-硝基-1,4-苯二胺纳米球作为光热剂具有36.65%的光热转换效率。 FPIs一旦内化到肿瘤内,由Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺转化引发Fenton反应产生·OH实现化学动力学治疗,反应过程中可以清除TME中过表达的谷胱甘肽(GSH),从而降低肿瘤中的抗氧化能力。 同时,产生的氧气可以改善TME中乏氧情况,增强PDT的治疗效果。 因此,FPIs是PTT/PDT/CDT联合治疗的一种理想材料,在肿瘤治疗中具有潜在的应用前景。     

Engineered Targeted Hyaluronic Acid–Glutathione‐Stabilized Gold Nanoclusters/Graphene Oxide–5‐Fluorouracil as a Smart Theranostic Platform for Stimulus‐Controlled Fluorescence Imaging‐Assisted Synergetic Chemo/Phototherapy

A theranostic platform with integrated diagnostic and therapeutic functions as well as specific targeted and controlled combination therapy to enhance treatment efficacy is of great importance for a wide range of biomedical applications. Here, we first attempted to develop biocompatible hyaluronic acid (HA)–glutathione (GSH) conjugate stabilized gold nanoclusters (GNCs) combined with graphene oxide (GO), accompanied by loading 5‐fluorouracil (5FU), as a novel theranostic platform (HG‐GNCs/GO‐5FU, HG refers to HA‐GSH). Multifunctional HG‐GNCs possessed excellent fluorescence, photosensitivity and specific targeting ability to the cancer cells while their fluorescence and singlet oxygen generation could be strongly inhibited by GO and then effectively restored by lysosomal hyaluronidase in tumor cells. The sustained and complete release of 5FU from HG‐GNCs/GO could also be stimulated successively by enzymatic degradation of HA and light‐induced heat effect of GO under laser irradiation so that turn‐on cell imaging‐assisted synergistic therapeutic strategies associated with triple enzyme/light‐controlled chemo/photothermal/photodynamic therapy could be achieved at the same time, reducing greatly the side effects of materials to normal cells. Our study presents a novel strategy to combine targeting and bioimaging with triple therapies to enhance the antitumor effect.     

Dual‐Targeted Selenium Nanoparticles for Synergistic Photothermal Therapy and Chemotherapy of Tumors

A combination of chemo‐ and photothermal therapy has emerged as a promising tactic for cancer therapy. However, the intricacy of accurate delivery and the ability to initiate drug release in specific tumor sites remains a challenging puzzle. Hence, to assure that the chemotherapeutic drug and photothermal agent are synchronously delivered to a tumor area for their synergistic effect, dual‐target (RC‐12 and PG‐6 peptides) functionalized selenium nanoparticles loaded with both doxorubicin (DOX) and indocyanine green (ICG) were designed and successfully synthesized. The as‐synthesized nanoparticles exhibited good monodispersity, size stability, and consistent spectral characteristics compared with those of ICG or DOX alone. The nanoparticles underwent self‐immolated cleavage under irradiation from a near‐IR laser and released the loaded drug owing to sufficient hyperthermia. Moreover, the internalized nanoparticles triggered the overproduction of intracellular reactive oxygen species to induce cell apoptosis. Taken together, this study provides a sequentially triggered nanosystem to achieve precise drug delivery by chemo‐photothermal combination.     

A pH-responsive ultrathin Cu-based nanoplatform for specific photothermal and chemodynamic synergistic therapy

Noninvasive tumor therapy requires a new generation of bionanomaterials towards sensitive response to the unique tumor microenvironment to achieve accurate and effective treatment. Herein, we have developed a tumor therapy nanoplatform by immobilizing natural glucose oxidase (GOD) onto Cu-based layered double hydroxide (CuFe-LDH) nanosheets, which for the first time integrates acid-enhanced photothermal therapy (PTT), and pH-responsive and heat-facilitated chemodynamic therapy (CDT) simultaneously. As demonstrated by EXAFS and HRTEM, CuFe-LDH nanosheets possess a considerable number of defects caused by different acid conditions, resulting in a significantly acid-enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency (83.2% at pH 5.4 vs. 46.0% at pH 7.4). Moreover, GOD/CuFe-LDH nanosheets can convert a cascade of glucose into hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) under tumor acid conditions, which is validated by a high maximum velocity (V_max = 2.00 × 10⁻⁷ M) and low Michaelis–Menten constant (K_M = 12.01 mM). With the combination of PTT and CDT, the tumor tissue in vivo is almost eliminated with low-dose drug injection (1 mg kg⁻¹). Therefore, this novel pH-responsive Cu-based nanoplatform holds great promise in tumor-specific CDT/PTT synergistic therapy.

A pH-responsive multifunctional nanosystem was synthesized by loading glucose oxidase (GOD) onto CuFe-layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets, which exhibited synchronous acid-enhanced/responsive photothermal and chemodynamic synergistic therapy.     

Biointerface engineering of self-protective bionic nanomissiles for targeted synergistic chemotherapy

Erythrocyte membrane(EM)-camouflaged chemotherapeutic delivery nanovehicles hold promise for solid tumor therapy because of their excellent biostability and biocompatibility. However, it is accompanied with insufficient targeting effect and deficient pharmacokinetic behavior due to the lack of a regulated biointerface to navigate and overcome biological transportation obstacles in solid tumor therapy.Herein, an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) aptamer(EApt) modified and EM-cloaked che...     

Facile construction of targeted pH-responsive DNA-conjugated gold nanoparticles for synergistic photothermal-chemotherapy

Recently, stimuli-responsive DNA nanostructure-based nanodevices have been applied for cancer therapy. In this study, pH-responsive i-motif DNA was modified on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) via a facile, time-saving freeze-thaw method and utilized to construct stimuli-responsive drug nanocarriers. When the environment pH changes from 7.4 to 5.0, the i-motif DNA would be folded into four-stranded (C-quadruplex) that could be characterized by circular dichroism, and the characteristic of acid stimulate was verified by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). To enhance specifical cellular uptake, MUC1 aptamer was employed as the targeting moiety. Doxorubicin (Dox) is an anticancer drug that can be efficiently intercalated into GC base pairs of DNA nanostructure to form drug-loaded nanovehicles (Dox@AuNP-MUC1). Additionally, owing to the excellent photothermal conversion efficiency of AuNPs, the synergistic effect between chemotherapy and PTT can be readily achieved by 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) irradiation, which exhibits specifically and efficiently anticancer efficiency. Hence, this multifunctional drug carrier shows the potential for synergistic photothermal-chemotherapy.     

D-A-D structured selenadiazolesbenzothiadiazole-based near-infrared dye for enhanced photoacoustic imaging and photothermal cancer therapy

Near-infrared (NIR) small molecular organic dyes as photothermal agents for cancer photothermal therapy (PTT) have attracted considerable research attention. Herein, two donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) structured NIR dyes, BBTT and SeBTT, are rationally designed, where the only difference is one heteroatom within the acceptor unit varying from sulfur to selenium (Se). More importantly, SeBTT NPs exhibit stronger NIR absorbance and higher photothermal conversion efficiency (PTCE ≈ 65.3%). In vivo experiments illustrate that SeBTT NPs can be utilized as a high contrast photoacoustic imaging (PAI) agent, and succeed in tumor suppression without noticeable damage to main organs under NIR photoirradiation. This study presents an effective molecular heteroatom surgery strategy to regulate the photothermal properties of NIR small molecules for enhanced PAI and PTT.     

Adhesive graphene grown on bioceramics with photothermal property

Recently, graphene has been applied to modify biomaterials due to excellent physicochemical property and biocompatibility. However, some problems still exist especially the weak binding force between graphene and other biomaterials. Herein, a promising platform with photothermal property was constructed by fabricating the adhesive graphene in situ on the surface of β-tricalcium phosphate (β-Ca₃(PO₄)₂, β-TCP) bioceramics using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The result of ultrasonic cleaning treatment of graphene modified β-TCP (G-TCP) demonstrated that the prepared graphene coating could firmly modified on β-TCP due to the occurrence of carbothermal reduction on the ceramic surface to promote the nucleation and growth of graphene. G-TCP composites exhibited excellent photothermal effects when irradiated with 808 nm near-infrared laser (NIR). The photothermal effect of G-TCP composites could induce more than 90% of osteosarcoma cell (MNNG) death in vitro. These results confirmed that the graphene could be successfully fabricated in situ on the surface of β-TCP by CVD method, and exhibited high firmness and excellent photothermal performance, revealing a promising application in the photothermal therapy of bone tumors.