AuNSs@Glycopolymer-ConA hybrid nanoplatform for photothermal therapy of hepatoma cells

Design of a versatile tumor treatment nanoplatform with synergistic effects for targeted cancer therapy has been a desire and challenge. In this study, we design and synthesize a hybrid nanoplatform (HNP) that is made of photothermal nanomaterials, gold nanostars, and glycopolymer that is thermoresponsive and contains glucose and galactose. The glucose groups can specifically recognize Concanavalin A (ConA), being cytotoxic to hepatoma (HepG2) cells, and the galactose groups can target asialoglycoprotein receptor. Thus, a HNP-ConA system with synergistic effects for photothermal therapy of HepG2 Cells is formed. It is found that the synthesized HNP has excellent colloidal stability, and exhibits high photothermal conversion efficiency (50.5%) and binding efficiency with ConA. In vivo and in vitro experiments confirm that the HNP-ConA system can target HepG2 cells effectively and meantime displays excellent biocompatibility. Under a near infrared laser irradiation, it leads to decrease in tumor size with time. A mouse survival rate greater than 80% has been obtained after 60-day treatment with our HNP-ConA. Therefore, the in vivo and in vitro results validate our design and the synergistic effects of different functions again HepG2 cells.