Xiaodan Jia

Fabrication of Multifunctional SiO2@GN-Serum Composites for Chemo-Photothermal Synergistic Therapy

Recently, the chemo-photothermal synergistic therapy has become a potential method for cancer treatment. Herein, we developed a multifunctional nanomaterial for chemo-photothermal therapeutics based on silica and graphene core/shell structure (SiO2@GN) because of the ability of GN to convert light energy into heat. Serum protein was further modified onto the surface of GN (SiO2@GN-Serum) to improve the solubility and stability of GN-based nanoparticles in physiological conditions. The as-synthesized SiO2@GN-Serum nanoparticles (NPs) have been revealed to have high photothermal conversion efficiency and stability, as well as high storage and release capacity for anticancer drug doxorubicin (SiO2@GN-Serum-Dox). The therapeutic efficacy of SiO2@GN-Serum-Dox has been evaluated in vitro and in vivo for cervical cancer therapy. In vitro cytotoxicity tests demonstrate that SiO2@GN-Serum NPs have excellent biocompatibility. However, SiO2@GN-Serum-Dox NPs show higher cytotoxicity than SiO2@GN-Serum and free Dox under irradiation with NIR laser at 1.0 W/cm(2) for 5 min owing to both SiO2@GN-Serum-mediated photothermal ablation and cytotoxicity of light-triggered Dox release. In mouse models, the tumor growth is significantly inhibited by chem-photothermal effect of SiO2@GN-Serum-Dox. Overall, compared with single chemotherapy or photothermal therapy, the combined treatment demonstrates better therapeutic efficacy. Our results suggest a promising GN-based core/shell nanostructure for biomedical applications.

FeIII‐Doped Two‐Dimensional C3N4 Nanofusiform: A New O2‐Evolving and Mitochondria‐Targeting Photodynamic Agent for MRI and Enhanced Antitumor Therapy

Local hypoxia in tumors, as well as the short lifetime and limited action region of 1 O2 , are undesirable impediments for photodynamic therapy (PDT), leading to a greatly reduced effectiveness. To overcome these adversities, a mitochondria-targeting, H2 O2 -activatable, and O2 -evolving PDT nanoplatform is developed based on FeIII -doped two-dimensional C3 N4 nanofusiform for highly selective and efficient cancer treatment. The ultrahigh surface area of 2D nanosheets enhances the photosensitizer (PS) loading capacity and the doping of FeIII leads to peroxidase mimetics with excellent catalytic performance towards H2 O2 in cancer cells to generate O2 . As such tumor hypoxia can be overcome and the PDT efficacy is improved, whilst at the same time endowing the PDT theranostic agent with an effective T 1 -weighted in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) ability. Conjugation with a mitochondria-targeting agent could further increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to 1 O2 by enhanced mitochondria dysfunction. In vitro and in vivo anticancer studies demonstrate an outstanding therapeutic effectiveness of the developed PDT agent, leading to almost complete destruction of mouse cervical tumor. This development offers an attractive theranostic agent for in vivo MRI and synergistic photodynamic therapy toward clinical applications.

BSA-exfoliated WSe2 nanosheets as a photoregulated carrier for synergistic photodynamic/photothermal therapy

In this study, we present the synthesis and application of a new therapeutic platform based on photosensitizer-loaded, two-dimensional layered nanomaterials of WSe2 for combined photothermal and photodynamic cancer therapy. WSe2 nanosheets are synthesized by a simple and efficient chemical exfoliation using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as an effective exfoliating agent and strong stabilizing agent, endowing the WSe2-BSA nanosheets obtained with high stability in physiological solutions and good biocompatibility without further functionalization. The WSe2-BSA nanosheets can be employed not only as an efficient photothermal agent but also as a carrier to load methylene blue (MB) as a photosensitizing agent for photodynamic therapy. Moreover, the generation of singlet oxygen can be regulated by controlling the release of MB from the WSe2 nanosheets with NIR irradiation. The therapeutic efficacy of the MB-loaded WSe2-BSA (WSe2-BSA/MB) complexes was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. It was found that dual-mode photothermal and photodynamic therapy has a significant synergistic effect and dramatically improves the therapeutic efficacy toward cancer cells compared with single mode treatment. These findings indicate that WSe2 nanosheets could be a promising therapeutic agent and smart carrier for the synergistic combination of phototherapy towards biomedical applications.

A Facile Ion-Doping Strategy To Regulate Tumor Microenvironments for Enhanced Multimodal Tumor Theranostics

Integration of multiple therapeutic/diagnostic modalities into a single system holds great promise to improve theranostic efficiency for tumors, but still remains a technical challenge. Herein, we report a new multimodal theranostic nanoconstruct based on Fe-doped polydiaminopyridine nanofusiforms, built easily and on a large scale, which can dual-regulate intracellular oxygen and glutathione levels, transport iron ions, and simultaneously be used for thermal imaging and magnetic resonance imaging. Co-loading of dihydroartemisinin and methylene blue generates a superior multifunctional theranostic agent with enhanced photochemotherapy efficiency and biodegradability, leading to almost complete destruction of tumors with near-infrared light irradiation. This represents an attractive route to develop multimodal anticancer theranostics.

H2O2-Responsive MB–BSA–Fe(III) Nanoparticles as Oxygen Generators for MRI-Guided Photodynamic Therapy

The local tumor hypoxia has become one of the main obstacles for photodynamic therapy (PDT).To break through this barrier, the fabrication of O2-evolving nanoplatform has been more significant. Herein, the uniform methylene blue (MB)–bovine serum albumin (BSA)–Fe(III) nanoparticles (MB–BSA–Fe(III) NPs) were successfully synthesized by biomineralization approach. MB–BSA–Fe(III) NPs show high loading capacity of MB, and Fe(ΙΙΙ) has excellent catalytic performance towards abundant H2O2 in cancer cells to generate O2, overcoming tumor hypoxia. All these combination effects remarkably increase the therapeutic efficiency of PDT, resulting in almost complete destruction of cancer cells. Most importantly, MB–BSA–Fe(III) NPs exhibit T2- magnetic resonance imaging, which have the potential for precise visualization of the tumor location. Our results demonstrate that MB–BSA–Fe(III) is a novel H2O2-responsive and O2-evolving nanoplatform and it has great potential for clinical applications such as cancer diagnosis, treatment or drug delivery.

Photosensitizer-Conjugated Bi2Te3 Nanosheets as Theranostic Agent for Synergistic Photothermal and Photodynamic Therapy

Phototherapy, including photothermal therapy (PTT)/photodynamic therapy (PDT), is usually considered as a promising strategy for cancer treatment due to its noninvasive and selective therapeutic effect by laser irradiation. A light-activatable nanoplatform based on bovine serum albumin (BSA)-coated Bi2Te3 nanosheets conjugated with methylene blue (MB) was successfully designed and constructed for bimodal PTT/PDT combination therapy. The resultant nanoconstruct (BSA-Bi2Te3/MB) exhibited high stability in various physiological solutions and excellent biocompatibility. Especially, the nanoconstruct not only possessed strong near-infrared absorption and high photothermal conversion as a photothermal agent for efficient tumor ablation but also could successfully load photosensitizer for PDT of tumor. When exposed to laser irradiation, tumors in mice with BSA-Bi2Te3/MB injection were completely eliminated without recurrence within 15 d, demonstrating the potential of the nanoconstruct as a bimodal PTT/PDT therapeutic platform for cancer treatment.