Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117585, Singapore.
Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), Singapore 117585, Singapore.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Jun 8;14(22):25183-25196. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c05170. Epub 2022 May 31.
Chemodynamic therapy (CDT), as a powerful tumor therapeutic approach with low side effects and selective therapeutic efficiency, has gained much attention. However, the low intracellular content of HO and the cellular bottleneck of low intracellular oxidative reaction rates at tumor sites have limited the antitumor efficacy of CDT. Herein, a series of sulfur-deficient engineered biodegradable cobalt sulfide quantum dots (CoS QDs) were constructed for improved synergistic photothermal- and hyperthermal-enhanced CDT of tumors through regulating the photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) and Fenton-like activity. Through defect engineering, we modulated the PCE and promoted the Fenton catalytic capability of CoS QDs. With increasing defect sites, the Fenton-like activity improved to generate more toxic OH, while the photothermal effect declined slightly. In light of above unique superiorities, the best synergistic effects of CoS QDs were obtained through comparing their PCE and catalytic activity by regulating the sulfur defect fraction degree in these QDs during the synthetic process. In addition, the ultrasmall size and biodegradation endowed QDs with the ability to be rapidly decomposed to ions that were easily excreted after therapy, thus reducing biogenic accumulation in the body with lowered systemic side effects. The in vitro/vivo results demonstrated that the photothermal- and hyperthermal-enhanced chemodynamic effect of CoS QDs can enable remarkable anticancer properties with favorable biocompatibility. In this study, the defect-driven mechanism for the photothermal-enhanced Fenton-like reaction provides a flexible strategy to deal with different treatment environments, holding great promise in developing a multifunctional platform for cancer treatment in the future.
化学动力学治疗（CDT）作为一种具有低副作用和选择性治疗效率的强大肿瘤治疗方法，受到了广泛关注。然而，细胞内 HO 含量低和肿瘤部位细胞内氧化反应速率低的细胞瓶颈限制了 CDT 的抗肿瘤疗效。在此，构建了一系列硫缺陷工程可生物降解的硫化钴量子点（CoS QDs），通过调节光热转换效率（PCE）和类芬顿活性，提高了肿瘤的协同光热和高热增强 CDT 效果。通过缺陷工程，我们调节了 PCE 并促进了 CoS QDs 的类芬顿催化能力。随着缺陷部位的增加，类芬顿活性提高，产生更多的毒性 OH，而光热效应略有下降。鉴于上述独特的优势，通过在合成过程中调节这些 QDs 中的硫缺陷分数程度来比较它们的 PCE 和催化活性，获得了 CoS QDs 的最佳协同效果。此外，超小尺寸和可生物降解性使 QDs 能够迅速分解为离子，治疗后容易排出体外，从而降低了体内的生物积累，降低了全身副作用。体外/体内结果表明，CoS QDs 的光热和高热增强的化学动力学效应能够实现显著的抗癌特性，具有良好的生物相容性。在这项研究中，缺陷驱动的光热增强类芬顿反应机制为应对不同的治疗环境提供了一种灵活的策略，有望在未来开发用于癌症治疗的多功能平台。
