Defect engineering in cobalt-doping prussian blue to enhance sonocatalytic activities for anticancer treatment

Abstract

The effect of sonocatalysis on anticancer is always restricted by rapid recombination of charge and low utilization of ultrasonic cavitation effect. Herein, cobalt-doping prussian blue (PB) nanocubes were synthesized, and then they were etched by acidic solution to obtain amorphous Co-FePB@1h with abundant defects including: Fe/Co defects, Fe-(CN)6 vacancies, and dangling bonds. Both doping and defect engineering contribute to decreasing band gap and promoting charge separation. Additionally, these strategies can regulate band level to increase the potential of conduction band (CB), promoting the thermodynamic feasibility and production (6-times) of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Simultaneously, US-generated holes also can oxidize endogenous glucose and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), which not only further inhibit electron-hole recombination but also can depress energy supply and reductive stress, facilitating anticancer. Moreover, the defect engineering not only can bring extra porous structure to enhance ultrasonic cavitation effect but also can increase active sites to improve peroxidase (POD) activity for chemodynamic therapy (CDT). The intracellular sonocatalysis associated with nanozyme activity exhibit the notable anticancer effect. These treatments can promote immungentic cell death (ICD), thereby stimulating anticancer immune activation to combat metastasis and recurrence. This study is the first time to use PB nanomaterials as sonosensitizers directly and their various constituents/structure and regulatable defects make the great performance in sonocatalysis.