Fang Baoru, Geng Siqi, Wang Ke, Wang Fang, Zhou Yiqing, Qin Jiaying, Luo Shengnan, Chen Yanping, Yu Zhangsen
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, 312000, P. R. China.
Laboratory of Nanomedicine, Medical Science Research Center, School of Medicine, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, 312000, P. R. China.
Nanoscale Horiz. 2025 Mar 24;10(4):733-747. doi: 10.1039/d4nh00464g.
Photothermal therapy (PTT) stands as an emerging and promising treatment modality and is being developed for the treatment of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and a series of superficial tumors. This innovative approach harnesses photothermal agents (PTAs) that convert near-infrared light (NIR) energy into heat, efficiently heating and ablating localized lesion tissue. Notably, the low scattering of NIR-II (1000-1500 nm) band light within biological tissue ensures superior penetration depth, surpassing that of NIR I (700-900 nm) band light. Consequently, developing PTAs with excellent absorption performance and biocompatibility in the NIR-II band has attracted significant attention in photothermal therapy research. We successfully synthesized phosphomolybdenum blue (PMB) nanoparticles using single-strand DNA (ssDNA) as a template in this innovative study. Subsequently, we delved into this material's absorption characteristics and photothermal properties across the NIR-I and NIR-II spectral regions. Furthermore, we evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of PMB on 4T1 cells and tumor-bearing mouse models of breast cancer. Our findings revealed that PMB not only exhibits remarkable biocompatibility but also possesses stellar photothermal performance. Specifically, under 808 nm and 1064 nm laser irradiation, PMB achieved photothermal conversion efficiencies of 21.37% and 28.84%, respectively. Notably, compared to 808 nm laser irradiation, even when transmitting through a 2 mm thick tumor tissue homogenate, the 1064 nm laser irradiation maintained a robust tumor ablation effect. What's more, PMB possesses critical pH-responsive degradation properties. For instance, PMB nanoparticles degrade rapidly under physiological conditions (pH 7.2-7.4) while degrading slower in the acidic tumor microenvironment (pH 6.0-6.9). This unique characteristic significantly mitigates the systemic toxicity of PMB and enhances the safety of photothermal therapy implementation. Moreover, our study represents the first instance of utilizing ssDNA as a template for synthesizing a PMB nano photothermal agent and demonstrating its exceptional tumor thermal ablation efficacy. This groundbreaking work offers novel insights into the development of safe, efficient, and pH-responsive photothermal agents for cancer therapy.
光热疗法（PTT）是一种新兴且有前景的治疗方式，目前正被用于治疗乳腺癌、前列腺癌以及一系列浅表肿瘤。这种创新方法利用光热剂（PTA）将近红外光（NIR）能量转化为热量，从而有效加热并消融局部病变组织。值得注意的是，生物组织中NIR-II（1000 - 1500 nm）波段光的低散射特性确保了其具有优于NIR I（700 - 900 nm）波段光的穿透深度。因此，开发在NIR-II波段具有优异吸收性能和生物相容性的PTA在光热疗法研究中引起了广泛关注。在这项创新性研究中，我们成功地以单链DNA（ssDNA）为模板合成了磷钼蓝（PMB）纳米颗粒。随后，我们深入研究了该材料在NIR-I和NIR-II光谱区域的吸收特性和光热性能。此外，我们评估了PMB对4T1细胞和乳腺癌荷瘤小鼠模型的治疗效果。我们的研究结果表明，PMB不仅具有显著的生物相容性，还具备出色的光热性能。具体而言，在808 nm和1064 nm激光照射下，PMB的光热转换效率分别达到了21.37%和28.84%。值得注意的是，与808 nm激光照射相比，即使透过2 mm厚的肿瘤组织匀浆，1064 nm激光照射仍能保持强大的肿瘤消融效果。此外，PMB具有关键的pH响应降解特性。例如，PMB纳米颗粒在生理条件（pH 7.2 - 7.4）下迅速降解，而在酸性肿瘤微环境（pH 6.0 - 6.9）中降解较慢。这一独特特性显著降低了PMB的全身毒性，提高了光热疗法实施的安全性。此外，我们的研究首次利用ssDNA作为模板合成PMB纳米光热剂，并证明了其卓越的肿瘤热消融疗效。这项开创性工作为开发用于癌症治疗的安全、高效且pH响应的光热剂提供了新的见解。
