Ambient Aqueous Synthesis of Ultrasmall Ni_0.85Se Nanoparticles for Noninvasive Photoacoustic Imaging and Combined Photothermal-Chemotherapy of Cancer

Abstract

Large-size-induced long-term retention in the body has hampered the translational applications of many reported nanomedicines. Herein, we reported a multifunctional theranostic agent composed of ultrasmall poly(acrylic acid)-functionalized NiSe nanoparticles (PAA-NiSe NPs), which were successfully obtained through a facile ambient aqueous precipitation strategy. Without exhibiting any noticeable toxicity, the as-prepared PAA-NiSe NPs (average diameter of 6.40 ± 1.89 nm) showed considerable absorption in near-infrared (NIR) region and high photothermal conversion efficiency of 54.06%, which could induce remarkable photoacoustic signals for tumor imaging and heat for localized ablation of cancerous cells upon exposure to NIR light. Notably, the ultrasmall PAA-NiSe NPs, unlike conventional nanomaterials with larger sizes, showed reasonable body clearance within 8 h after intravenous injection. Furthermore, ascribed to protonation process of amino groups in DOX molecules and carboxyl groups in PAA molecules in an acidic microenvironment, the drug-loaded (doxorubicin hydrochloride, DOX·HCl) PAA-NiSe NPs (PAA-NiSe-DOX NPs) revealed promoted drug release at acidic pH, which could be useful for acidic tumor microenvironment responsive drug delivery. Evident from the results of cell-killing assay in vitro and tumor treatment study in vivo, PAA-NiSe-DOX NPs exhibited evident synergistic effects on killing 4T1 breast cancer cells. Thus, this study presents a multifunctional theranostic agent composed of ultrasmall PAA-NiSe NPs for potential cancer treatment without long-term toxicity concerns.

Scalable Yielding of Highly Stable Polyelectrolyte‐Coated Copper Sulfide Nanoparticles by Flash Nanoprecipitation for Photothermal‐Chemotherapeutics

“…This can be explained by the protonation of PAA, which promotes the release of DOX. [ 45 ] Moreover, NIR laser irradiation accelerated DOX release in all investigated pH conditions. This was induced by the local temperature rise generated by the photothermal effect of CuS NPs, which could result in increased thermal vibration of polymer chains and weaken the interactions between the DOX and the PAA polymers on the surface of NPs.…”

“…[ 20,50 ] The UV–Vis spectra (Figure 3C) of PAA, PAA‐CuS NPs, and PAA‐CuS‐DOX NPs show that DOX was successfully loaded into the PAA‐CuS‐DOX NPs, confirmed by the absorbance peak at 500 nm which is the characteristic peak of DOX. [ 44,45 ] Notably, the increased absorbance at 800 nm results from the absorbance of CuS rather than the partial aggregation in solution, for CuS NPs demonstrate increased absorbance in the shortwave infrared range wavelengths due to localized surface plasmon resonance (Figure S5, Supporting Information). [ 51 ] Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy (Figure S6, Supporting Information) was employed to determine the functional groups on the surface of CuS‐NPs‐FNP.…”

MoS2-based nanocomposites for cancer diagnosis and therapy

“…Meanwhile, PDT can enhance the penetration of tumor blood vessels and increase the intake of nanoparticles, improving the anti-tumor efficacy of nanodrugs [ 311 , 312 ]. Overall, the combination of phototherapy and chemotherapy can achieve a better therapeutic effect [ [313] , [314] , [315] , [316] , [317] , [318] , [319] , [320] , [321] , [322] , [323] , [324] ].…”

Research Progress of Thermosensitive Hydrogel in Tumor Therapeutic

“…Photothermal therapy destructs tumor tissues based on local hyperthermia mediated by photothermal agents under laser irradiation [47]. Thus, various kinds of photothermal agents have been developed to satisfy PTT performance [48]. However, most of them still have some drawbacks in clinical application, such as non-degradability, low biosafety and complex synthesis progress.…”