Supramolecular nanomaterials based on hollow mesoporous drug carriers and macrocycle-capped CuS nanogates for synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy.

Multifunctional supramolecular nanoplatforms that integrate the advantages of different therapeutic techniques can trigger multimodal synergistic treatment of tumors, thus representing an emerging powerful tool for cancer therapeutics. Methods: In this work, we design and fabricate a multifunctional supramolecular drug delivery platform, namely Fa-mPEG@CP5-CuS@HMSN-Py nanoparticles (FaPCH NPs), consisting of a pyridinium (Py)-modified hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles-based drug reservoir (HMSN-Py) with high loading capacity, a layer of NIR-operable carboxylatopillar[5]arene (CP5)-functionalized CuS nanoparticles (CP5-CuS) on the surface of HMSN-Py connected through supramolecular host-guest interactions between CP5 rings and Py stalks, and another layer of folic acid (Fa)-conjugated polyethylene glycol (Fa-PEG) antennas by electrostatic interactions capable of active targeting at tumor lesions, in a controlled, highly integrated fashion for synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy. Results: Fa-mPEG antennas endowed the enhanced active targeting effect toward cancer cells, and CP5-CuS served as not only a quadruple-stimuli responsive nanogate for controllable drug release but also a special agent for NIR-guided photothermal therapy. Meanwhile, anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) could be released from the HMSN-Py reservoirs under tumor microenvironments for chemotherapy, thus realizing multimodal synergistic therapeutics. Such a supramolecular drug delivery platform showed effective synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion: This novel supramolecular nanoplatform possesses great potential in controlled drug delivery and tumor cellular internalization for synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy, providing a promising approach for multimodal synergistic cancer treatment.

Yang J ，Dai D ，Lou X ，Ma L ，Wang B ，Yang YW ... -  《Theranostics》

Fabrication of multifunctional triple-responsive platform based on CuS-capped periodic mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles for chemo-photothermal therapy.

Cheng X ，Li D ，Lin A ，Xu J ，Wu L ，Gu H ，Huang Z ，Liu J ，Zhang Y ，Yin X ... -  《International Journal of Nanomedicine》

Fe3O4@mSiO2-FA-CuS-PEG nanocomposites for magnetic resonance imaging and targeted chemo-photothermal synergistic therapy of cancer cells.

Gao Z ，Liu X ，Deng G ，Zhou F ，Zhang L ，Wang Q ，Lu J ... -  《-》

Dual-responsive molybdenum disulfide/copper sulfide-based delivery systems for enhanced chemo-photothermal therapy.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)-based drug delivery systems have shown considerable potential in cancer nanomedicines. In this work, a multifunctional nanoplatform comprising MoS2 nanosheets decorated with copper sulfide (CuS) and further functionalized with polyethylene glycol (PEG) is reported. The resultant material has a particle size of approximately 115 nm, and can be loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) to a loading capacity of 162.3 mg DOX per g of carrier. Drug release is triggered by two stimuli (near infrared (NIR) irradiation and pH), and the carrier is shown to have excellent colloidal stability. The presence of both MoS2 and CuS leads to very high photothermal conversion efficiency (higher than with MoS2 alone). In vitro experiments revealed that the blank CuS-MoS2-SH-PEG carrier is biocompatible, but that the synergistic application of chemo-photothermal therapy (in the form of CuS-MoS2-SH-PEG loaded with DOX and NIR irradiation) led to greater cell death than either chemotherapy (CuS-MoS2-SH-PEG(DOX) but no NIR) or photothermal therapy (CuS-MoS2-SH-PEG with NIR). A cellular uptake study demonstrated that the nanoplatform can efficiently enter tumor cells, and that uptake is enhanced when NIR is applied. Overall, the functionalized MoS2 material developed in this work exhibits great potential as an efficient system for dual responsive drug delivery and synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy. The route employed in our work thus provides a strategy to enhance photothermal efficacy for transition metal dichalcogenide drug delivery systems.

Zhang X ，Wu J ，Williams GR ，Yang Y ，Niu S ，Qian Q ，Zhu LM ... -  《-》

Programmed near-infrared light-responsive drug delivery system for combined magnetic tumor-targeting magnetic resonance imaging and chemo-phototherapy.

In this study, an intelligent drug delivery system was developed by capping doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded hollow mesoporous CuS nanoparticles (HMCuS NPs) with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs). Under near infrared (NIR) light irradiation, the versatile HMCuS NPs could exploit the merits of both photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) simultaneously. Herein, the multifunctional IONPs as gatekeeper with the enhanced capping efficiency were supposed to realize "zero premature release" and minimize the adverse side effects during the drug delivery in vivo. More importantly, the hybrid metal nanoplatform (HMCuS/DOX@IONP-PEG) allowed several emerging exceptional characteristics. Our studies have substantiated the hybrid nanoparticles possessed an enhanced PTT effect due to coupled plasmonic resonances with an elevated heat-generating capacity. Notably, an effective removal of IONP-caps occurred after NIR-induced photo-hyperthermia via weakening of the coordination interactions between HMCuS-NH2 and IONPs, which suggested the feasibility of sophisticated controlled on-demand drug release upon exposing to NIR stimulus with spatial/temporal resolution. Benefiting from the favorable magnetic tumor targeting efficacy, the in vitro and in vivo experiments indicated a remarkable anti-tumor therapeutic efficacy under NIR irradiation, resulting from the synergistic combination of chemo-phototherapy. In addition, T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast performance of IONPs provided the identification of cancerous lesions. Based on these findings, the well-designed drug delivery system via integration of programmed functions will provide knowledge for advancing multimodality theranostic strategy. As we all know, a series of shortcomings of conventional chemotherapy such as limited stability, rapid clearing and non-specific tumor targeting ability remain a significant challenge to achieve successful clinical therapeutic efficiency in cancer treatments. Fortunately, developing drug delivery system under the assistance of multifunctional nanocarries might be a great idea. For the first time, we proposed an intelligent drug delivery system by capping DOX-loaded hollow mesoporous CuS nanoparticles (HMCuS NPs) with multifunctional IONPs to integrate programmed functions including enhanced PTT effect, sophisticated controlled drug release, magnetic targeting property and MR imaging. The results showed HMCuS/DOX@IONP-PEG could significantly enhance anti-tumor therapeutic efficacy due to the synergistic combination of chemo-phototherapy. By this delicate design, we believe such smart and extreme versatile all-in-one drug delivery platform could arouse broad interests in the fields of biomaterials, nanotechnology, and drug delivery system.

Feng Q ，Zhang Y ，Zhang W ，Hao Y ，Wang Y ，Zhang H ，Hou L ，Zhang Z ... -  《-》