A Pd corolla–human serum albumin–indocyanine green nanocomposite for photothermal/photodynamic combination therapy of cancer

Abstract

In this work, a novel nanoplatform based on Pd corolla–human serum albumin–indocyanine green (PdCs–HSA–ICG) was developed for cancer photothermal/photodynamic combination therapy. Pd corollas (denoted as PdCs) with good near-infrared photothermal conversion efficiency (η ≈ 37%) were first prepared and modified with human serum albumin (HSA) and indocyanine green (ICG) to get the PdCs–HSA–ICG nanocomposite. The prepared PdCs–HSA–ICG not only improves the colloid and thermal stability of ICG, but also shows a higher temperature increase than that of PdCs and free ICG as well as a comparable singlet oxygen (¹O₂) generation capability to that of free ICG. Upon single 808 nm laser irradiation, the photothermal (PTT)/photodynamic (PDT) combined therapeutic efficacy of PdCs–HSA–ICG at both cellular and animal levels was superior to PdCs–HSA (PTT) or free ICG (PTT and PDT), respectively. Thus, the designed PdCs–HSA–ICG nanocomposite holds great potential as a new class of photosensitive agent for cancer phototherapy.