Combining chemotherapy with photothermal therapy (PTT)
for cancer
treatment could overcome the inherent limitations of both single-modality
chemotherapy and PTT. However, the obstacle of accurate drug delivery
to tumor sites based on chemo-photothermal remains challenging. This
article describes development of a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive
hyaluronic acid-based nanoparticle to overcome these drawbacks. Herein,
HA-TK-MTX (HTM) was synthesized by a ROS-responsive cleaved thioketal
moiety linker (TK) of methotrexate (MTX) and hyaluronic acid (HA).
Through hydrophobic interaction and π–π stacking
interaction, a photothermal agent IR780 was integrated into the HTM,
and the IR780/HTM nanoparticles (IHTM NPs) were obtained. The IHTM
NPs show high photostability, excellent photothermal performance,
remarkable tumor-targeting ability, and ROS sensibility. Due to the
accurate drug delivery ability and superior chemo-photothermal treatment
effect of IHTM NPs, the tumor inhibition rate reached 70.95% for 4T1
tumor-bearing mice. This work serves as a precedent for the chemo-photothermal
therapy of cancer by rationally designing ROS-responsive nanoparticles.
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