Injectable in situ forming hydrogels incorporating dual-nanoparticles for chemo-photothermal therapy of breast cancer cells

Chemo-photothermal therapy (chemo-PTT) mediated by nanomaterials holds a great potential for cancer treatment. However, the tumor uptake of the systemically administered nanomaterials was recently found to be below 1%. To address this limitation, the development of injectable tridimensional polymeric matrices capable of delivering nanomaterials directly into the tumor site appears to be a promising approach. In this work, an injectable in situ forming ionotropically crosslinked chitosan-based hydrogel co-incorporating IR780 loaded nanoparticles (IR/BPN) and Doxorubicin (DOX) loaded nanoparticles (DOX/TPN) was developed for application in breast cancer chemo-PTT. The produced hydrogels (IR/BPN@Gel and IR/BPN+DOX/TPN@Gel) displayed suitable physicochemical properties and produced a temperature increase of about 9.1 degrees C upon exposure to Near Infrared (NIR) light. As importantly, the NIR-light exposure also increased the release of DOX from the hydrogel by 1.7-times. In the in vitro studies, the combination of IR/BPN@Gel with NIR light (photothermal therapy) led to a reduction in the viability of breast cancer cells to 35%. On the other hand, the non-irradiated IR/BPN+DOX/ TPN@Gel (chemotherapy) only diminished cancer cells' viability to 85%. In contrast, the combined action of IR/ BPN+DOX/TPN@Gel and NIR light reduced cancer cells' viability to about 9%, demonstrating its potential for breast cancer chemo-PTT.

Automated summary

The study developed an injectable hydrogel system incorporating IR780-loaded nanoparticles and Doxorubicin-loaded nanoparticles for breast cancer chemo-photothermal therapy. The system showed increased release of Doxorubicin under near infrared light exposure and led to enhanced cancer cell death both through chemotherapy and photothermal therapy, demonstrating promising potential for breast cancer treatment.