Enhanced Tumor Accumulation of Low-Molecular-Weight Hyaluronic Acid/Chitosan Nanocomplexes for Photothermal Therapy

Abstract

Targeted phototheranostic nanosystems involving both cancer-specific near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging and NIR light-induced phototherapy have shown great potential to improve cancer detection and treatment. In this study, a bifunctional nanocomplex based on low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid (LMW-HA) and chitosan oligosaccharide lactate (COL) conjugating a zwitterionic NIR dye (ZW800-1) was rationally designed and prepared, and it was simultaneously used to enhance tumor accumulation and photothermal therapy (PTT). When HA-COL-ZW nanocomplexes were intravenously injected into mice bearing NCI-H460 tumors, HA-COL-ZW revealed increased tumor accumulation with prolonged tumor retention. Moreover, the ZW800-1 incorporated in HA-COL-ZW nanocomplexes showed excellent capability to convert NIR light into heat energy at the tumor site, acting as a PTT agent. Therefore, the targeted phototherapeutic HA-COL-ZW nanocomplex is a biocompatible and effective photothermal nanoagent, which could be a good candidate for future clinical use.

Near-Infrared Fluorescent Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles for Targeted Photothermal Cancer Therapy

“…PTT agents should have strong absorption in the traditional near-infrared (NIR) region (650–950 nm) for efficiently converting light energy into thermal energy to induce hyperthermia, leading to cancer cell death [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Although many different types of PTT agents have shown great promise in cancer treatment, the optimization of nanoparticles is still required to overcome the limitations of nanoagent-based PTT, such as low tumor targetability, short tumor retention, poor biocompatibility, potential long-term toxicity, and complicated synthetic processes [ 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”

High-Performance Hybrid Phototheranostics for NIR-IIb Fluorescence Imaging and NIR-II-Excitable Photothermal Therapy

“…Among all the phototherapy methodologies, photothermal therapy (PTT), which adopts photothermal agents (PTAs) to convert absorbed photons into hyperthermia, is an attractive tumor treatment modality [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Numerous studies have demonstrated that photothermal therapy exhibits remarkable efficacy in cancer treatment [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Compared to the traditional treatments like radiotherapy and chemotherapy, PTT possesses the superiorities of non-invasiveness, remote controllability, minimal side effects, and insignificant drug resistance [ 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”