Tumor targeted nanostructured lipid carrier co-delivering paclitaxel and indocyanine green for laser triggered synergetic therapy of cancer

A mono approach to cancer therapy usually fails to achieve satisfactory results due to its limited killing effect. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) with high biocompatibility as well as tumor targetability were successfully designed and formulated in our study to co-deliver paclitaxel (PTX) and indocyanine green (ICG) for combined chemo and photodynamic therapy. ICG not only acted as an imaging reagent but also as a laser responsive agent to aid accelerated drug release under laser irritation. It has been demonstrated that our drug delivery system (DDS) not only significantly enhanced the stability of drugs, produced sufficient local ROS and triggered accelerated drug release upon laser irradiation, but also increased intracellular uptake of drugs and induced increased cytotoxicity in cancer cells via synergistic effects. Moreover, NLCs demonstrated excellent tumor targetability in tumor-bearing mice. Therefore, tumor targeted co-delivery of PTX and ICG mediated by NLCs could be a promising approach for further development as an effective strategy for cancer therapy.