Plasmonic CuS nanodisk assembly based composite nanocapsules for NIR-laser-driven synergistic chemo-photothermal cancer therapy

Hydrophobic CuS nanodisk assemblies and the anticancer drug paclitaxel (PTX) have been co-encapsulated into hybrid silica nanocapsules using a triblock copolymer (R) F127 (PEO106PPO70PEO106) micelle based soft-template method under mild conditions. The as-prepared CuS-PTX/SiO2 composite nanocapsules have excellent biocompatibility, solubility and high colloidal stability in physiological environments and also exhibit an enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 31.2% as a result of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects. Owing to the hydrophobic-hydrophobic interaction and the silica shell protection, the PTX encapsulation ratio could reach 41.25% and the loaded PTX can undergo sustained release and controlled by near infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. In addition, in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated the remarkable antitumor effects of the CuS-PTX/SiO2 nanocapsules under NIR laser irradiation (980 nm, 1 W cm(-2)) for 5 minutes. Hence, the designed novel CuS nanodisk assembly based CuS-PTX/SiO2 nanoplatform shows great potential for synergetic chemo-photothermal cancer therapy.