Mesoporous NiS2 nanospheres as a hydrophobic anticancer drug delivery vehicle for synergistic photothermal–chemotherapy

Abstract

To overcome the unfavorable effects of the hydrophobicity of drugs and cancer resistance, mesoporous NiS₂ nanospheres (mNiS₂ NSs) have been successfully developed here to package hydrophobic camptothecin (CPT) and realize the synergistic photothermal–chemotherapy of cancer. The mNiS₂ NSs which were prepared through a facile solvothermal method here exhibited not only considerable near-infrared (NIR) absorption and good photothermal conversion efficiency as high as 44.6%, but also achieved a NIR light induced CPT release property which were both beneficial for improving the cancer cell-killing efficacy. After a short period of NIR light illumination, a significant intensified cell killing efficacy was observed when 4T1 or HepG2 cancer cells were incubated with CPT@mNiS₂ NSs. Thus, mNiS₂ NSs have been demonstrated here to have potential as a novel NIR light-responsive hydrophobic drug delivery nanoplatform for realizing synergistic cancer treatment.