Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.
Institute of Biomedical & Health Engineering, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenzhen, 518055, China.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2023 Dec;12(32):e2302484. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202302484. Epub 2023 Sep 21.
Postoperative recovery of cancer patients can be affected by complications, such as tissue dysfunction or disability caused by tissue resection, and also cancer recurrence resulting from residual cancer cells. Despite impressive progress made for tissue engineering scaffolds that assist tissue regeneration for postoperative cancer patients, the majority of existing tissue engineering scaffolds still lack functions for monitoring and killing residual cancer cells, if there are any, upon their detection. In this study, multifunctional scaffolds that comprise biodegradable nanofibers and core-shell structured microspheres encapsulated with theranostic nanoparticles (NPs) are developed. The multifunctional scaffolds possess an extracellular matrix-like nanofibrous architecture and soft tissue-like mechanical properties, making them excellent tissue engineering patch candidates for assisting in the repair and regeneration of tissues at the cancerous sites after surgery. Furthermore, they are capable of localized delivery of theranostic NPs upon quick degradation of core-shell structured microspheres that contain theranostic NPs. Leveraging on folic acid-mediated ligand-receptor binding, surface-enhanced Raman scattering activity, and near-infrared-responsive photothermal effect of the theranostic gold NPs (AuNPs) delivered locally, the multifunctional scaffolds display excellent active targeting, diagnosis, and photothermal therapy functions for cancer cells, showing great promise for adaptive postoperative cancer management.
癌症患者术后的恢复可能会受到并发症的影响，例如组织切除导致的组织功能障碍或残疾，以及残留癌细胞导致的癌症复发。尽管在组织工程支架方面取得了令人瞩目的进展，这些支架有助于癌症患者术后的组织再生，但大多数现有的组织工程支架仍然缺乏在检测到残留癌细胞时进行监测和杀死癌细胞的功能。在本研究中，开发了一种包含可生物降解纳米纤维和包封有治疗诊断纳米颗粒（NPs）的核壳结构微球的多功能支架。这种多功能支架具有类似细胞外基质的纳米纤维结构和软组织样的机械性能，使其成为优秀的组织工程贴片候选物，可辅助手术部位癌症组织的修复和再生。此外，它们能够在包含治疗诊断 NPs 的核壳结构微球快速降解时局部递送治疗诊断 NPs。利用局部递送来的治疗诊断金 NPs（AuNPs）的叶酸介导的配体-受体结合、表面增强拉曼散射活性和近红外响应光热效应，多功能支架对癌细胞表现出优异的主动靶向、诊断和光热治疗功能，为自适应的术后癌症管理提供了巨大的潜力。
