CHCl 3 solution; b) Calculated from the film UV-vis-NIR absorption onset; c) Measured from the CV; d) Calculated by the equation: E LUMO = E HOMO + E g .
Accumulation of nanoparticles in solid tumors depends on their extravasation, but their efficacy is often compromised by intrinsic physiological heterogeneity in tumors. The conventional solutions to circumvent this problem are size control of nanoparticles or increasing the vascular permeability. The aim of this study is to investigate the combination effect of size variation of stimuli-responsive nanoparticles and improved vascular permeability triggered by near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation. Doxorubicin (DOX), a clinically proven drug for bladder cancer, was encapsulated in the nanocomposites with high loading content up to 45%. We show that NIR light-responsive size-switchable nanocarriers could considerably enhance the tumor-targeting of DOX in bladder tumor-bearing mice. Moreover, a combination of NIR-induced hyperthermia and DOX-mediated chemotherapy resulted in remarkable inhibition of tumor growth in mice. Histological results suggest that the change in morphology of tumor microvasculature may account for enhanced extravasation and accumulation of the nanodrugs upon NIR irradiation. Together, these data suggest that external stimuli-responsive drug delivery system offers a safe and effective means of targeted chemo/photothermal therapy.
Semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SP NPs) are employed as efficient nanoagents for "all-in-one" theranostic nanoplatforms with dual photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and photothermal therapy (PTT) functions based on their photothermal conversion effect. However, the mechanisms of tuning the PTT efficiency are still elusive, though several SP NPs with high photothermal efficiency are reported. Herein, two donor-acceptor (D-A) SP NPs PTIGSVS and PIIGSVS with the same donor unit but different acceptor units are designed and synthesized. Through tuning the acceptor unit, PTIGSVS shows more planar backbone structure, stronger D-A strength, redshifted absorption, enhanced extinction efficient, weakened emission properties, and more efficient nonradiative decay in comparison to the polymeric analogue PIIGSVS. Thus, PTIGSVS NPs present much higher photothermal conversion efficiencies (74%) than PIIGSVS NPs (11%), resulting in significantly enhanced in vitro and in vivo PAI and PTT performance. This contribution demonstrates that PTIGSVS NPs are superior PA/PTT agents for effective cancer theranostic and shed light on understanding the relationship between molecular structures and photothermal effect of CPs.
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