Lee Yu-Hsiang, Chung Chieh-Lin
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan City 320317, Taiwan.
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan City 320317, Taiwan.
Gels. 2025 Jan 16;11(1):71. doi: 10.3390/gels11010071.
Skin cancer is the world's fifth most diagnosed malignancy and is increasingly occurring in young adults. The elevated morbidity and mortality of skin cancer are known to be highly correlated with its frequent recurrence after tumor excision. Although regimens such as chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy are often administered following surgical treatments, the patients may suffer from severe side effects, drug resistance, and/or high cost during treatments, indicating that the development of an effective and safe modality for skin cancer after surgery is still highly demanded nowadays. In this study, an injectable and thermoresponsive hyaluronic acid/hexamethylene diisocyanate-Pluronic F127 block copolymer crosslinking composite hydrogel loaded with indocyanine green (ICG) and camptothecin (CPT), called ICHHPG, was developed for photochemotherapy of skin cancer after surgery. ICHHPG can be self-gelationed at 37 °C and stabilizes ICG in the gel matrix. Upon NIR exposure, ICHHPG can generate hyperthermia and consequently provide photothermal therapy when the ICG dosage is >5 μM. Furthermore, ICHHPG may provide a remarkably enhanced cancericidal effect compared to the equal concentration of free ICG (≤10 μM) or CPT (≤1000 μM) alone, and more than 95% of cancer cells can be destroyed as the intra-gel doses of ICG/CPT were elevated to 10/800 μM. Given the confirmed cytotoxicity together with its fluidic and thermoresponsive characteristics which are foreseeably favorable for wound coverage, the developed ICHHPG is highly applicable for use in skin cancer treatment after surgical excision.
皮肤癌是全球第五大最常被诊断出的恶性肿瘤，且在年轻人中越来越常见。已知皮肤癌发病率和死亡率的升高与其肿瘤切除后频繁复发高度相关。尽管手术治疗后常采用化疗和/或免疫疗法等方案，但患者在治疗过程中可能会遭受严重的副作用、耐药性和/或高昂的费用，这表明目前仍迫切需要开发一种有效且安全的皮肤癌术后治疗方式。在本研究中，开发了一种负载吲哚菁绿（ICG）和喜树碱（CPT）的可注射热响应性透明质酸/六亚甲基二异氰酸酯 - 普朗尼克F127嵌段共聚物交联复合水凝胶，称为ICHHPG，用于皮肤癌术后的光化疗。ICHHPG可在37°C下自凝胶化，并将ICG稳定在凝胶基质中。在近红外光照射下，当ICG剂量>5μM时，ICHHPG可产生热疗并因此提供光热疗法。此外，与单独使用相同浓度的游离ICG（≤10μM）或CPT（≤1000μM）相比，ICHHPG可能具有显著增强的抗癌效果，并且当凝胶内ICG/CPT剂量升高至10/800μM时，超过95%的癌细胞可被破坏。鉴于已证实的细胞毒性及其流体和热响应特性，预计这些特性有利于伤口覆盖，所开发的ICHHPG非常适用于手术切除后的皮肤癌治疗。
