Deformable and Disintegrable Multifunctional Integrated Polyprodrug Amphiphiles for Synergistic Phototherapy and Chemotherapy

Multimodal collaborative therapy has been recognized as one of the more effective means to eliminate tumors in the current biomedicine research field as compared with monotherapy. Among them, by taking advantage of its high-precision and controllability, phototherapy has become a mainstay of treatment. However, physical encapsulation of free photosensitive units within nanocarriers was one of the main implementations, which might inevitably result in the photosensitizer leakage and side effect. For this purpose, a kind of multifunctional integrated polyprodrug amphiphiles, P(PFO-IG-CPT)-PEG, were prepared by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization from polymerizable pentadecafluorooctan monomers, indocyanine green monomers, reduction-responsive camptothecin monomers, and acid-responsive PEG based methacrylate monomers (GMA(-OH/-PEG)). The resultant copolymers could self-assemble into spherical nanopartides in water, performing size-deformability in acidic conditions and subsequent disintegration in reduction environment as demonstrated by in vitro experiments. Furthermore, an enhanced CPT release ratio and rate from nanopartides could be achieved by a NIB. irradiation due to the hyperthermia induced by the covalently linked IG moieties. Not only that, because of the sufficient O-2 content brought by PFO, the NIR light-triggered generation of O-1(2) was also detected in cells. With the combination of CPT-guided chemotherapy as well as NIR light-guided photothermal and photodynamic therapies, fatal and irreversible damage to cancer cells was observed by cell experiments; the implanted tumor size in the mouse model was obviously shrunk upon receiving multimodal collaborative therapy. We speculate that such fabricated nanodiagnosis and treatment systems could meet the growing emergency for effective drug delivery, programmed and on-demand drug release, and multimodal integrated therapy.

Automated summary

Multimodal collaborative therapy is an effective approach in biomedical research to eliminate tumors. By preparing a multifunctional integrated polyprodrug, precise treatment and drug release can be achieved, resulting in fatal damage to cancer cells.