Biodegradable polydopamine and tetrasulfide bond co-doped hollowed mesoporous silica nanospheres as GSH-triggered nanosystem for synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy of breast cancer

Breast cancer, as the common malignant carcinoma in women, seriously reduces the life quality and increases mortality of female worldwide. Fortunately, insufficient chemotherapy with external photothermal therapy could remarkably improve the therapeutic efficiency of breast cancer. In this work, we proposed a polydopamine (PDA) and tetrasulfide bond co-doped hollowed mesoporous silica nanospheres with Dox loading and surface hyaluronic acid coating for drug leakage avoidance (PhMSON@Dox-HA). After intravenously injected into tumor bearing-mice, this therapeutic agent could effectively target to the tumor site owing to the HA modification. The biocompatible property and GSHinduced decomposition capability endows the precise release of drugs in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. Meanwhile, PDA facilitated the efficient photothermal therapy under 808 nm laser irradiation. Therefore, the synergistic effect of chemo-photothermal therapy possessed most effective tumor eradication ability. Our work exploits the design approach of biocompatible and degradable drug delivery nanocarriers and sheds bright light on the chemotherapy and photothermal therapy combination for the malignant tumor elimination. (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Breast cancer, a common malignant tumor in women, can be effectively treated by the combination of chemotherapy and external photothermal therapy using a polydopamine and tetrasulfide bond co-doped hollowed mesoporous silica nanospheres with Dox loading and surface hyaluronic acid coating. This approach enables targeted drug delivery, precise drug release, and efficient photothermal therapy, leading to effective tumor eradication.