Photocatalysis-mediated drug-free sustainable cancer therapy using nanocatalyst

Abstract

Drug therapy unavoidably brings toxic side effects and drug content-limited therapeutic efficacy although many nanocarriers have been developed to improve them to a certain extent. In this work, a concept of drug-free therapeutics is proposed and defined as a therapeutic methodology without the use of traditional toxic drugs, without the consumption of therapeutic agents during treatment but with the inexhaustible therapeutic capability to maximize the benefit of treatment, and a Z-scheme SnS1.68-WO2.41 nanocatalyst is developed to achieve near infrared (NIR)-photocatalytic generation of oxidative holes and hydrogen molecules for realizing combined hole/hydrogen therapy by the drug-free therapeutic strategy. Without the need of any drug and other therapeutic agent assistance, the nanocatalyst oxidizes/consumes intratumoral over-expressed glutathione (GSH) by holes and simultaneously generates hydrogen molecules in a lasting and controllable way under NIR irradiation. Mechanistically, generated hydrogen molecules and GSH consumption inhibit cancer cell energy and destroy intratumoral redox balance, respectively, to synergistically damage DNA and induce tumor cell apoptosis. High efficacy and biosafety of combined hole/hydrogen therapy of tumors are achieved by the nanocatalyst. The proposed catalysis-based drug-free therapeutic strategy breaks a pathway to realize high efficacy and low toxicity of cancer treatment.

Targeted Anti‐Tumor Immunotherapy Using Tumor Infiltrating Cells

“…encapsulated self‐replicating RNA in lipid nanoparticles (LNP) and observed anti‐tumor effect in several mouse models of cancer. [ 167 , 168 ] However, just as what Sun, et al. mentioned, there may be misunderstanding in the development of nanodrugs.…”

Recent near-infrared light-activated nanomedicine toward precision cancer therapy

“…79 Besides, an interesting Z-scheme SnS 1.68 -WO 2.41 nanoplatform was developed for antitumor therapy. 82 Under NIR light, the nanocatalyst can achieve oxidative holes and hydrogen molecules, leading to ROS enhancement and hydrogen therapy. Both the in vitro and in vivo experiments displayed that the nanocatalyst performed well in inducing apoptosis.…”

Photothermal and Enhanced Photocatalytic Therapies Conduce to Synergistic Anticancer Phototherapy with Biodegradable Titanium Diselenide Nanosheets

“…[55] Moreover, laser irradiation of nanoparticles would efficiently increase ROS generation, thus creating a cellular redox imbalance and destroying the tumor microenvironment (TME), both of which can directly and indirectly destroy cancer cells. [56,57] Furthermore, the acidic environment results in a high rate of ROS generation; [58] the reduction or oxidation of selenium contributes to cancer prevention, and Ti undergoes photocatalysis to generate ROS and kill cancer cells. And previous studies revealed that the monolayer TiSe 2 possesses an electron pocket persisting to low temperature in a non-bonding state to enable the ultra-fast transfer of electron-phonon coupling to the surface of the NS monolayer, [59,60] that is favorable for the photocatalysis for ROS generation.…”