National Engineering Research Center for Nanomedicine and College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yunnan University , Kunming 650071, China.
ACS Nano. 2017 Oct 24;11(10):10012-10024. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.7b04230. Epub 2017 Oct 2.
Elemental tellurium (Te) nanoparticles are increasingly important in a variety of applications such as thermoelectricity, photoconductivity, and piezoelectricity. However, they have been explored with limited success in their biomedical use, and thus a tremendous challenge still exists in the exploration of Te nanoparticles that can treat tumors as an effective anticancer agent. Here, we introduce bifunctional Te nanodots with well-defined nanostructure as an effective anticancer agent for photo-induced synergistic cancer therapy with tumor ablation, which is accomplished using hollow albumin nanocages as a nanoreactor. Under near-infrared light irradiation, Te nanodots can produce effective photothermal conversion, as well as highly reactive oxygen species such as •O and dismutated •OH via a type-I mechanism through direct electron transfer, thereby triggering the potent in vivo hyperthermia and simultaneous intracellular reactive oxygen species at tumors. Moreover, Te nanodots possess perfect resistance to photobleaching, effective cytoplasmic translocation, preferable tumor accumulation, as well as in vivo renal elimination, promoting severe photo-induced cell damage and subsequent synergy between photothermal and photodynamic treatments for tumor ablation. These findings provide the insight of elemental Te nanodots for biomedical research.
元素碲（Te）纳米粒子在热电、光电导和压电等多种应用中越来越重要。然而，它们在生物医学应用中的探索取得的成功有限，因此，探索可作为有效抗癌剂的碲纳米粒子仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在这里，我们引入了具有明确纳米结构的双功能碲纳米点，作为一种有效的抗癌剂，用于光诱导协同癌症治疗，通过中空白蛋白纳米笼作为纳米反应器来实现肿瘤消融。在近红外光照射下，碲纳米点可以通过直接电子转移产生有效的光热转换，以及通过 I 型机制产生高反应性氧物种，如 •O 和歧化的 •OH，从而引发有效的体内高热和同时在肿瘤内产生细胞内的活性氧。此外，碲纳米点具有完美的抗光漂白性、有效的细胞质转位、良好的肿瘤积累以及体内的肾脏消除作用，促进严重的光诱导细胞损伤，并随后在光热和光动力治疗之间产生协同作用，以实现肿瘤消融。这些发现为生物医学研究提供了元素碲纳米点的新见解。
