Polydopamine Coated Selenide Molybdenum: A New Photothermal Nanocarrier for Highly Effective Chemo-Photothermal Synergistic Therapy

Recently, two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have been widely studied in biomedicine. In this article, we developed a new photothermal nanocarrier based on polydopamine coated selenide molybdenum (MoSe2@PDA) as an effective nanocarrier for loading anticancer drug doxorubicin (MoSe2@PDA-Dox). Conjugation of PDA onto the surface of MoSe2 nanosheets can not only enhance the photothermal effect of MoSe2 nanosheets and decrease its cytotoxicity but also provide anchor points for loading Dox. The resulting MoSe2@PDA nanocomposites exhibit good biocompatibility, good stability, and high photothermal conversion efficiency. The subsequent loading of anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox) creates an efficient therapeutic agent with pH- and heat-responsive drug release. An in vivo experiment shows strong damage to tumor tissue, killing the tumor cell almost thoroughly. On that account, the MoSe2@PDA-Dox nanocomposites may play a key role in cancer therapy in the future. Our work reveals the great promise of combing chemical and photothermal therapy to realize a synergistic effect for tumor treatment.