College of Geography and Biological Information, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
Department of Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
Int J Nanomedicine. 2023 Jan 29;18:527-539. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S393194. eCollection 2023.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has attracted increasing attention for tumor treatment because of its minimal invasiveness and specific spatiotemporal selectivity. However, insufficient tumor accumulation and low cellular uptake of photosensitizers limit its therapeutic efficacy.
In this study, flexible hollow human serum albumin/catalase nanocapsules (HSA/CATs) were created using a core-assisted protein-coating method and combined with the photosensitizer chlorin e6 (HSA/CAT@Ce6) for PDT.
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images demonstrate that HSA/CAT nanocapsules are flexible, with a uniform diameter (310 nm) and a well-defined hollow structure. Thanks to their flexibility, HSA/CAT@Ce6 nanocapsules show a higher cellular uptake than rigid nanoparticles. The nanocapsules effectively generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in 4T1 cells because of their high cellular uptake and catalytic capacity, remarkably enhancing their in vitro PDT efficacy. In addition, the in vivo tumor accumulation of HSA/CAT@Ce6 nanocapsules is significantly larger than that of rigid nanoparticles and Ce6, meaning they are highly effective in tumor cell ablation. This demonstrates that our flexible nanoplatform holds great promise for enhancing PDT of tumor.
光动力疗法（PDT）因其微创性和特定的时空选择性而受到越来越多的关注，可用于肿瘤治疗。然而，光敏剂的蓄积不足和细胞摄取率低限制了其治疗效果。
本研究采用核辅助蛋白包衣法构建了柔性人血清白蛋白/过氧化氢酶纳米胶囊（HSA/CATs），并结合光敏剂氯代叶绿素 e6（HSA/CAT@Ce6）用于 PDT。
透射电子显微镜（TEM）图像表明，HSA/CAT 纳米胶囊具有柔韧性，粒径均匀（310nm），且具有明确的中空结构。由于其柔韧性，HSA/CAT@Ce6 纳米胶囊的细胞摄取率高于刚性纳米颗粒，从而显示出更高的细胞摄取率。由于其高细胞摄取率和催化能力，纳米胶囊可有效在 4T1 细胞中生成活性氧（ROS），显著提高了其体外 PDT 疗效。此外，HSA/CAT@Ce6 纳米胶囊在体内的肿瘤蓄积量明显大于刚性纳米颗粒和 Ce6，表明其对肿瘤细胞消融具有很高的疗效。这表明我们的柔性纳米平台在增强肿瘤 PDT 方面具有很大的应用前景。
