Ethnopharmacological Relevance. Dendrobii Officinalis Caulis, the stems of Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo, as a tonic herb in Chinese materia medica and health food in folk, has been utilized for the treatment of yin-deficiency diseases for decades. Methods. Information for analysis of Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo was obtained from libraries and Internet scientific databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Wiley InterScience, Ingenta, Embase, CNKI, and PubChem. Results. Over the past decades, about 190 compounds have been isolated from Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo. Its wide modern pharmacological actions in hepatoprotective effect, anticancer effect, hypoglycemic effect, antifatigue effect, gastric ulcer protective effect, and so on were reported. This may mainly attribute to the major and bioactive components: polysaccharides. However, other small molecule components require further study. Conclusions. Due to the lack of systematic data of Dendrobium officinale, it is important to explore its ingredient-function relationships with modern pharmacology. Recently, studies on the chemical constituents of Dendrobium officinale concentrated in crude polysaccharides and its structure-activity relationships remain scant. Further research is required to determine the Dendrobium officinale toxicological action and pharmacological mechanisms of other pure ingredients and crude extracts. In addition, investigation is needed for better quality control and novel drug or product development.

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The overdeveloped lysosomes in cancer cells are gaining increasing attention toward more precise and effective organelle-targeted cancer therapy. It is suggested that rod/platelike nanomaterials with an appropriate size exhibited a greater quantity and longer-term lysosomal enrichment, as the shape plays a notable role in the nanomaterial transmembrane process and subcellular behaviors. Herein, a biodegradable platform based on layered double hydroxide-copper sulfide nanocomposites (LDH-CuS NCs) is successfully prepared via in situ growth of CuS nanodots on LDH nanoplates. The as-prepared LDH-CuS NCs exhibited not only high photothermal conversion and near-infrared (NIR)-induced chemodynamic and photodynamic therapeutic efficacies, but also could achieve real-time in vivo photoacoustic imaging (PAI) of the entire tumor. LDH-CuS NCs accumulated in lysosomes would then generate extensive subcellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in situ, leading to lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) pathway-associated cell death both in vitro and in vivo.

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In recent times, the combination therapy has garnered enormous interest owing to its great potential in clinical research. It has been reported that disulfiram, a clinical antialcoholism drug, could be degraded to diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) in vivo and subsequently result in the copper−DDTC complex (Cu(DDTC) 2 ) toward ablating cancer cells. In addition, the ultrasmall copper sulfide nanodots (CuS NDs) have shown great potential in cancer treatment because of their excellent photothermal and photodynamic therapeutic efficiencies. Herein, by taking advantage of the interactions between CuS and DDTC, a new multifunctional nanoplatform based on DDTC-loaded CuS (CuS−DDTC) NDs is successfully fabricated, leading to the achievement of the synergistic effect of photothermal and copper enhanced chemotherapy. All experimental results verified promising synergistic therapeutic effects. Moreover, in vivo biocompatibility and metabolism experiments displayed that the CuS−DDTC NDs could be quickly excreted from the body with no apparent toxicity signs. Together, our findings indicated the superior synergistic therapeutic effect of photothermal and copper-enhanced chemotherapy, providing a promising anticancer strategy based on the CuS−DDTC NDs drug delivery system.