Electroactive polypyrrole nanowire arrays: synergistic effect of cancer treatment by on-demand drug release and photothermal therapy.

An electroresponsive drug release system based on polypyrrole (Ppy) nanowires was developed to induce the local delivery of anticancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX), according to the applied electric field. DOX-conjugated Ppy nanowire (NW) (DOX/Ppy NW) array was initially prepared by electrochemical deposition of a mixture of pyrrole monomers and biotin as dopants in the anodic alumina oxide membrane as a sacrificial template. Morphological observation by scanning electron microscopy revealed free-standing and 3D nanotopographical features with large surface area and high density. In addition, we investigated the antitumor efficacy of DOX released from DOX/Ppy NW array in response to the external electric field using two kinds of cancer cell lines, human oral squamous carcinoma cells (KB cells) and human breast cancer cells (MCF7 cells). Meanwhile, strong photothermal effect as a result of a near-infrared absorbing ability of Ppy synergistically maximizes the chemotherapeutic efficacy. Our results suggested that the proposed multifunctional Ppy platform possessing several beneficial features is very promising for many therapeutic applications including cancer.