Self-Assembly of Precisely Fluorinated Albumin for Dual Imaging- Guided Synergistic Chemo-Photothermal-Photodynamic Cancer Therapy

Although albumin has been extensively used in nanomedicine, it is still challenging to fluorinate albumin into fluorine-19 magnetic resonance imaging (19F MRI)-traceable theranostics because existing strategies lead to severe 19F signal splitting, line broadening, and low 19F MRI sensitivity. To this end, 34-cysteine-selectively fluorinated bovine serum albumins (BSAs) with a sharp singlet 19F peak have been developed as 19F MRI-sensitive and self -assembled frameworks for cancer theranostics. It was found that fluorinated albumin with a non-binding fluorocarbon and a long linker is crucial for avoiding 19F signal splitting and line broadening. With the fluorinated BSAs, paclitaxel (PTX) and IR-780 were self-assembled into stable, monodisperse, and multifunctional nanoparticles in a framework-promoted self-emulsion way. The high tumor accumulation, efficient cancer cell uptake, and laser-triggered PTX sharp release of the BSA nanoparticles enabled 19F MRI-near infrared fluorescence imaging (NIR FLI)-guided synergistic chemotherapy (Chemo), photothermal and photodynamic therapy of xenograft MCF-7 cancer with a high therapeutical index in mice. This study developed a rational synthesis of 19F MRI-sensitive albumin and a framework-promoted self-emulsion of multifunctional BSA nanoparticles, which would promote the development of protein-based high-performance biomaterials for imaging, diagnosis, therapy, and beyond.

Automated summary

This study developed a method to fluorinate bovine serum albumin with 34 cysteine residues, creating fluorine-19 magnetic resonance imaging (19F MRI)-traceable theranostics. The fluorinated albumin with a non-binding fluorocarbon and a long linker was found to avoid 19F signal splitting and line broadening. The self-assembled nanoparticles of paclitaxel and IR-780 showed high tumor accumulation and enabled 19F MRI-near infrared fluorescence imaging (NIR FLI)-guided synergistic chemotherapy, photothermal and photodynamic therapy.