Cu-Hemin Nanosheets and Indocyanine Green Co-Loaded Hydrogel for Photothermal Therapy and Amplified Photodynamic Therapy

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) organic small molecule indocyanine green (ICG) could respond well to 808 nm laser to promote local high temperature and ROS generation for realizing photothermal therapy (PTT)/photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, the high content of GSH in the tumor microenvironment (TME) limited the further therapeutic performance of ICG. Herein, injectable agarose in situ forming NIR-responsive hydrogels (CIH) incorporating Cu-Hemin and ICG were prepared for the first time. When CIH system was located to the tumor tissue through local injection, the ICG in the hydrogel could efficiently convert the light energy emitted by the 808 nm laser into thermal energy, resulting in the heating and softening of the hydrogel matrix, which releases the Cu-Hemin. Then, the over-expressed GSH in the TME could also down-regulated by Cu-Hemin, which amplified ICG-mediated PDT. In vivo experiments validated that ICG-based PDT/PTT and Cu-Hemin-mediated glutathione depletion could eliminate cancer tissues with admirable safety. This hydrogel-based GSH-depletion strategy is instructive to improve the objective response rate of PDT.

Nanomedicine as a multimodal therapeutic paradigm against cancer: on the way forward in advancing precision therapy

“…Hence, the GSH level inside the TME can be successfully modulated by PTT/PDT therapy to enhance PDT's antineoplastic effects. 60 In addition, in 2015 physiologically stable NIR plasmonic copper sulfide nanocrystals (NCs) as a PTT material were developed by Wang et al These NCs had high efficacy and NIR-triggered PDT activity that led to the production of ROS. 61 Moreover, Fan et al designed a methylene blue (MB)-bound A9-aptamer-attached nanoplatform for PSMA-positive LNCaP prostate cancer cells, which offered targeted treatment.…”

Photothermal therapy using graphene quantum dots

“…PDT and PTT have recently received a lot of interest in treating a variety of illnesses including malignant tumors, due to their low severity. 175,176 Therefore, combining PTT with PDT in a combinational therapy could be an effective cancer treatment. Some PTT agents, such as gold nanoparticles, could act as both PTT ablation agents and PDT carriers at the same time.…”

Host-guest assemblies for improved photothermal cancer therapy

“…ICG is a well-known NIR-I absorptive reagent. Because of its excellent biocompatibility, it is widely applied in photothermal therapy [38,39] . However, in aqueous solution, ICG is easily aggregated [40] , which will decrease its photothermal conversion efficiency.…”