A Hybrid Organo‐Nanotheranostic Platform of Superlative Biocompatibility for Near‐Infrared‐Triggered Fluorescence Imaging and Synergistically Enhanced Ablation of Tumors

Abstract

The quest for an all‐organic nanosystem with negligible cytotoxicity and remarkable in vivo tumor theranostic capability is inescapably unending. Hitherto, the landscape of available photothermal agents is dominated by metal‐based nanoparticles (NPs) with attendant in vivo negatives. Here, an all‐organic‐composed theranostic nanosystem with outstanding biocompatibility for fluorescence image‐guided tumor photothermal therapy, and as a potential alternative to metal‐based photothermal agents is developed. This is rationally achieved by compartmentalizing indocyanine green (ICG) in glycol chitosan (GC)‐polypyrrole (PP) nanocarrier to form hybrid ICG@GC‐PP NPs (≈65 nm). The compartmentalization strategy, alongside the high photothermal conversion ability of PP jointly enhances the low photostability of free ICG. Advantageously, ICG@GC‐PP is endowed with an impeccable in vivo performance by the well‐known biocompatibility track records of its individual tri organo‐components (GC, PP, and ICG). As a proof of concept, ICG@GC‐PP NPs enables a sufficiently prolonged tumor diagnosis by fluorescence imaging up to 20 h post‐injection. Furthermore, owing to the complementary heating performances of PP and ICG, ICG@GC‐PP NPs‐treated mice by one‐time near‐infrared irradiation exhibit total tumor regression within 14 days post‐treatment. Therefore, leveraging the underlying benefits of this study will help to guide the development of new all‐organic biocompatible systems in synergism, for safer tumor theranostics.

Metal-Free Organo-Theranostic Nanosystem with High Nitroxide Stability and Loading for Image-Guided Targeted Tumor Therapy

“…Generally, the cell viabilities of KYSE-30 (Figure 4A) and 4T1 (Figure 4B) cells after co-incubation with GC-PP, GC-PP@TEMPO, and GC-PP@TEMPO-FA NPs for 24 h are ≥90%, even at concentrations of up to 200 μg mL −1 . The high tissuetolerance levels of GC-PP, GC-PP@TEMPO, and GC-PP@ TEMPO-FA NPs are attributed to the cell viabilities of more than 90% that were separately recorded for an assortment of tumor cells co-incubated with polymer-based NPs containing GC, 81 PP, 1 TEMPO, 27 and FA. 16 These lead to an inference that the proposed GC-PP@TEMPO-FA NPs possess the highly sought-after perceptible biocompatibility for tumor nanotheranostic agents and could further be applied in vivo.…”

Chemotherapeutic nanomaterials in tumor boundary delineation: Prospects for effective tumor treatment

“…Recent progress in developing molecular imaging contrast agents has enabled proper visualization of tumor boundaries by non-invasive optical imaging strategy. Various compounds including anti-cancer drugs, antibodies, peptides, and small molecules have effectively been labelled with optical imaging dyes to generate promising fluorescent probes 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 .…”

Recent advances of transition Ir(III) complexes as photosensitizers for improved photodynamic therapy

“…Fortunately, the strategy of nanoparticles (NPs) has successfully solved the above problems 31,32 . Nanomaterials are attracting growing attention in the biological field because they have many outstanding advantages: (i) the hydrophilic shell can enhance their solubility in the physiological environment and reduce the dark toxicity 33 . (ii) The surface of NPs can be easily modified by recognition groups to enhance their targeting target function 34,35 .…”