Issue 12, 2018

A mitochondria-targeted nanoradiosensitizer activating reactive oxygen species burst for enhanced radiation therapy

Abstract

Radiation therapy (RT) has been widely used for malignant tumor treatment. However, the large dosage of ionizing radiation and high frequency of radiotherapy in clinical cancer therapy cause severe damage to normal tissues adjacent to tumors. Therefore, how to increase the local treatment efficacy and reduce the damage to normal tissues has been a challenge for RT. Herein, we developed a novel strategy for enhanced RT based on a mitochondria targeted titanium dioxide-gold nanoradiosensitizer. When irradiated with X-rays, the nanosensitizer could produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the mitochondria, which induced the domino effect on the ROS burst. The overproduced ROS accumulated in mitochondria, resulting in mitochondrial collapse and irreversible cell apoptosis. A colony formation assay indicated that the cell survival rate when incubated with the mitochondrial targeted nanosensitizer was significantly lower than that of non-targeted groups. As demonstrated by in vivo experiments, the tumor was significantly suppressed even just once RT with the nanosensitizer.

Graphical abstract: A mitochondria-targeted nanoradiosensitizer activating reactive oxygen species burst for enhanced radiation therapy

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
15 Okt 2017
Accepted
06 Feb 2018
First published
28 Feb 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 3159-3164

A mitochondria-targeted nanoradiosensitizer activating reactive oxygen species burst for enhanced radiation therapy

N. Li, L. Yu, J. Wang, X. Gao, Y. Chen, W. Pan and B. Tang, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 3159 DOI: 10.1039/C7SC04458E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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