Ultra-Small High-Entropy Alloy Nanoparticles: Efficient Nanozyme for Enhancing Tumor Photothermal Therapy

High-entropy alloys nanoparticles (HEANPs) are receiving extensive attention due to their broad compositional tunability and unlimited potential in bioapplication. However, developing new methods to prepare ultra-small high-entropy alloy nanoparticles (US-HEANPs) faces severe challenges owing to their intrinsic thermodynamic instability. Furthermore, there are few reports on studying the effect of HEANPs in tumor therapy. Herein, the fabricated PtPdRuRhIr US-HEANPs act as bifunctional nanoplatforms for the highly efficient treatment of tumors. The US-HEANPs are engineered by the universal metal-ligand cross-linking strategy. This simple and scalable strategy is based on the aldol condensation of organometallics to form the target US-HEANPs. The synthesized US-HEANPs exhibit excellent peroxidase-like (POD-like) activity and can catalyze the endogenous hydrogen peroxide to produce highly toxic hydroxyl radicals. Furthermore, the US-HEANPs possess a high photothermal conversion effect for converting 808 nm near-infrared light into heat energy. In vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrated that under the synergistic effect of POD-like activity and photothermal action, the US-HEANPs can effectively ablate cancer cells and treat tumors. It is believed that this work not only provides a new perspective for the fabrication of HEANPs, but also opens the high-entropy nanozymes research direction and their biomedical application.

Automated summary

High-entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEANPs) are attracting attention for their tunability and potential in bioapplication. However, it is challenging to prepare ultra-small high-entropy alloy nanoparticles (US-HEANPs) due to their instability. In this study, PtPdRuRhIr US-HEANPs were fabricated and used as multifunctional nanoplatforms for tumor treatment. The US-HEANPs exhibited peroxidase-like activity and photothermal conversion effect, which effectively ablated cancer cells and treated tumors. This work provides new insights into HEANPs fabrication and opens up research on high-entropy nanozymes and their biomedical applications.