Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at The Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Kerbala, Kerbala 56001, Iraq.
J Mater Chem B. 2022 Mar 2;10(9):1453-1462. doi: 10.1039/d1tb02625a.
Exploration of versatile nanoplatforms within one single nanostructure for multidisciplinary treatment modalities, especially achieving a synergistic therapeutic efficacy of combinational gene/photothermal cancer therapy is still a great challenge in biomedicine and nanotechnology. In this study, a unique photothermal nanocarrier has successfully been designed and developed for a combination of gene therapy (GT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer cells. Surface-engineered iron oxides (α-FeO) nanoparticles (NPs) with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) polymer coatings are synthesized using a one-pot oxidative polymerization method. The results show that the as-prepared α-FeO@PEDOT core-shell NPs with a uniform particle size exhibit positively charged surfaces, facilitating efficient siRNA Bcl-2 (B-cell lymphoma-2) uptake for delivery to breast cancer cells. More importantly, α-FeO@PEDOT core-shell NPs not only display good biocompatibility and water dispersibility but also strong optical absorption enhancement in the Vis-NIR region as compared to α-FeO NPs. The obtained α-FeO@PEDOT core-shell NPs show an efficient photothermal conversion efficacy ( = 54.3%) and photostability under NIR laser irradiation. As a result, both and biological studies on two types of breast cancer cells/tumors treated with α-FeO@PEDOT-siRNA nanocomplexes demonstrate high cancer cell apoptosis and tumor inhibition induced by synergistic GT/PTT therapy under mild conditions compared to an individual GT or PTT alone. Taken together, this is the first example of the use of an α-FeO@PEDOT core-shell nanoagent as a siRNA delivery nanocarrier for highly effective gene/photothermal combination anticancer therapy.
在单一纳米结构中探索多功能纳米平台，用于多学科治疗方式，特别是实现组合基因/光热癌症治疗的协同治疗效果，在生物医学和纳米技术中仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在这项研究中，成功设计和开发了一种独特的光热纳米载体，用于癌细胞的基因治疗（GT）和光热治疗（PTT）的联合治疗。使用一锅氧化聚合方法合成了具有聚（3,4-亚乙基二氧噻吩）（PEDOT）聚合物涂层的表面工程氧化铁（α-FeO）纳米颗粒（NPs）。结果表明，所制备的具有均匀粒径的α-FeO@PEDOT 核壳 NPs 具有正表面电荷，有利于有效摄取 siRNA Bcl-2（B 细胞淋巴瘤-2），用于递送至乳腺癌细胞。更重要的是，与α-FeO NPs 相比，α-FeO@PEDOT 核壳 NPs 不仅表现出良好的生物相容性和水分散性，而且在 Vis-NIR 区域具有更强的光吸收增强。所获得的α-FeO@PEDOT 核壳 NPs 在 NIR 激光照射下表现出高效的光热转换效率（=54.3%）和光稳定性。结果，两种乳腺癌细胞/肿瘤的和生物学研究表明，与单独的 GT 或 PTT 相比，用α-FeO@PEDOT-siRNA 纳米复合物处理后，协同 GT/PTT 治疗在温和条件下诱导了更高的癌细胞凋亡和肿瘤抑制。综上所述，这是首次将α-FeO@PEDOT 核壳纳米剂用作高效基因/光热联合抗癌治疗的 siRNA 递送纳米载体。
