Liu Yanlan, Ji Xiaoyuan, Liu Jianhua, Tong Winnie W L, Askhatova Diana, Shi Jinjun
Center for Nanomedicine and Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Center for Nanomedicine and Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Adv Funct Mater. 2017 Oct 19;27(39). doi: 10.1002/adfm.201703261. Epub 2017 Aug 21.
Near-infrared (NIR)-absorbing metal-based nanomaterials have shown tremendous potential for cancer therapy, given their facile and controllable synthesis, efficient photothermal conversion, capability of spatiotemporal-controlled drug delivery, and intrinsic imaging function. Tantalum (Ta) is among the most biocompatible metals and arouses negligible adverse biological responses in either oxidized or reduced forms, and thus Ta-derived nanomaterials represent promising candidates for biomedical applications. However, Ta-based nanomaterials by themselves have not been explored for NIR-mediated photothermal ablation therapy. In this work, we report an innovative Ta-based multifunctional nanoplatform composed of biocompatible tantalum sulfide (TaS) nanosheets (NSs) for simultaneous NIR hyperthermia, drug delivery, and computed tomography (CT) imaging. The TaS NSs exhibit multiple unique features including (i) efficient NIR light-to-heat conversion with a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 39%. (ii) high drug loading (177% by weight), (iii) controlled drug release triggered by NIR light and moderate acidic pH, (iv) high tumor accumulation via heat-enhanced tumor vascular permeability, (v) complete tumor ablation and negligible side effects, and (vi) comparable CT imaging contrast efficiency to the widely clinically used agent iobitridol. We expect that this multifunctional NS platform can serve as a promising candidate for imaging-guided cancer therapy and selection of cancer patients with high tumor accumulation.
近红外（NIR）吸收型金属基纳米材料因其合成简便可控、光热转换效率高、具备时空可控的药物递送能力以及固有的成像功能，在癌症治疗方面展现出巨大潜力。钽（Ta）是生物相容性最佳的金属之一，无论处于氧化态还是还原态，引发的不良生物反应都可忽略不计，因此钽基纳米材料是生物医学应用的理想候选材料。然而，基于钽的纳米材料本身尚未被用于近红外介导的光热消融治疗。在这项工作中，我们报道了一种创新的基于钽的多功能纳米平台，它由生物相容性硫化钽（TaS）纳米片（NSs）组成，可同时用于近红外热疗、药物递送和计算机断层扫描（CT）成像。TaS纳米片具有多个独特特性，包括：（i）高效的近红外光热转换，光热转换效率高达39%；（ii）高药物负载量（重量比为177%）；（iii）由近红外光和适度酸性pH触发的可控药物释放；（iv）通过热增强的肿瘤血管通透性实现高肿瘤蓄积；（v）完全消融肿瘤且副作用可忽略不计；（vi）CT成像对比效率与临床广泛使用的药物碘海醇相当。我们期望这个多功能纳米片平台能够成为成像引导癌症治疗以及筛选具有高肿瘤蓄积的癌症患者的理想候选材料。
