Transferrin-decorated, MoS-capped hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres as a self-guided chemo-photothermal nanoplatform for controlled drug release and thermotherapy.

To improve cancer therapeutic efficacy and avoid side effects on normal tissues, a targeted chemo-photothermal nanoplatform was designed based on transferrin-decorated and MoS-capped hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres. MoS nanosheets acted as a gatekeeper to prevent the leakage of DOX from the drug delivery system as well as the photothermal agent (PTA) to improve the therapeutic effect and facilitate the NIR-triggered endosomal escape. In this work, MoS nanosheets were anchored on the surface of hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres (HMSNs) via the formation of disulfide bonds (-S-S), which could be easily cleaved in the presence of the intracellular GSH, leading to stimuli-responsive drug release from the hollow mesoporous silica nanocarriers. Moreover, to further improve the tumor specificity and cellular uptake of the anti-cancer drug, the nanocarrier surface was also modified with the targeting ligand transferrin via-S-S linkage. The results demonstrated that the transferrin-decorated, MoS-capped HMSNs can be utilized as a targeting chemo-photothermal synergetic system with high therapeutic efficacy.