Highly efficient Chemo/Photothermal therapy alleviating tumor hypoxia against cancer and attenuate liver metastasis in vivo

Tumor metastasis is a major cause of poor cancer prognosis. Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a non-invasive, nonoxygen-dependent, and highly spatiotemporally precise treatment that may aid chemotherapy in suppressing tumor growth and metastasis. This article aims to develop and modify a CuS-based nanoplatform linking RGDAcrk to actively target and internalize doxorubicin (DOX) into tumor cells, resulting in an alternating strategy of synergistic chemo/PTT. The nanoparticle's shape, spectra, drug encapsulation efficiency, loading content, and controlled release are characterized, and a comparison of 808/980 nm lasers is used to irradiate the nanoplatform. The cell survival rate is used to determine the cytotoxicity of DOX and PTT, and the chemo/PTT is used to treat 4T1-Luc tumor-bearing mice. Simultaneously, bioluminescence and photoacoustic imaging are employed to assess therapy efficacy, as well as tumor size, weight, density, the bodyweight of mice, and survival curves. H&E, immunohistochemistry for HIF-1 alpha, and TUNEL fluorescence staining confirm these findings, suggesting that the nanoplatform has a good active-targeted capacity and perform high-efficiency PTT caused by 980 nm laser irradiation. The synergistic effect is at least 3.53 times higher than chemo/PTT without synergistic effect and tumor liver metastasis is successfully suppressed, showing that it has the potential to be used for cancer treatment and prognosis improvement.

Automated summary

This article aims to develop and modify a CuS-based nanoplatform for actively targeting and internalizing drugs into tumor cells. The properties of the nanoplatform, such as shape, spectra, drug encapsulation efficiency, etc., are characterized. The study shows that the nanoplatform has good active-targeted capacity and high-efficiency photothermal therapy effect, which has the potential for cancer treatment and prognosis improvement.