Issue 9, 2021

An efficient photo-chemo combination therapeutic platform based on targeted reduction-responsive self-crosslinked polymer nanocapsules

Abstract

Photo-chemo combination therapy holds great promises for cancer treatment; thus developing efficient approaches for delivering photo-chemo combination reagents has long been pursued. Herein, an amphiphilic branched copolymer, four-arm poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(propylene sulfide)-cyclic(Arg-Gly-Asp-D-Phe-Lys) (PEG-PPS-cRGD), was synthesized to prepare targeted self-crosslinked polymer nanocapsules consisting of a disulfide bond and the αvβ3 integrin-targeting ligand cRGD. Furthermore, by coloading both indocyanine green (ICG) and doxorubicin (DOX) in PEG-PPS-cRGD nanocapsules, a high-performance photo-chemo combination therapeutic platform designated as DINCs was successfully developed. The dissolution rate investigations demonstrated that DINCs exhibited sensitive reduction-responsive drug release profiles during the incubation with glutathione (GSH), while the drug release rate could be further accelerated by NIR laser irradiation. The in vitro studies showed that DINCs had outstanding cellular uptake, photothermal effects and ROS generation under laser irradiation, which significantly enhanced cytotoxicity in the treatment of squamous cells (SCC-15). Moreover, the in vivo results showed that synergistic photo-chemo combination treatment by DINCs plus laser irradiation could completely eliminate the tumor of squamous cell carcinoma with favorable biological safety.

Graphical abstract: An efficient photo-chemo combination therapeutic platform based on targeted reduction-responsive self-crosslinked polymer nanocapsules

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Feb 2021
Accepted
08 Mar 2021
First published
10 Mar 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Mater. Adv., 2021,2, 3020-3030

An efficient photo-chemo combination therapeutic platform based on targeted reduction-responsive self-crosslinked polymer nanocapsules

S. Qi, C. Liu, M. Qin, C. Tao, J. Liu, Y. Le, J. Wang, J. Zhang and Y. Lu, Mater. Adv., 2021, 2, 3020 DOI: 10.1039/D1MA00097G

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