Ti 3 C 2 -MXene-based composites provide multifunctional interfaces in diagnosis and treatment of tumors. Herein, we proposed a multifunctional nanoplatform based on Ti 3 C 2 -MXene− Au nanocomposites, which combines photothermal properties and peroxidase-like activity, accomplishing synergistic photothermal therapy (PTT) and enzyme dynamic therapy (EDT) accompanied by photoacoustic (PA) and thermal dual-mode imaging in vivo. Furthermore, PTT induces immunogenic cell death, and EDT promotes cell apoptosis, facilitating dendritic cell (DC) maturation and T cell infiltration into the tumor. On this basis, the antibody OX40 (αOX40) was utilized to further contribute immune therapy for reversing the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment by activating CD4 + and CD8 + T cells. In summary, a triune of PTT/EDT/antitumor immune therapy is achieved by combining Ti 3 C 2 -MXene−Au nanocomposites and αOX40, which possesses several strong features of good biocompatibility, NIR-controlled targeting, significant cancer cell killing, and satisfactory biosafety in vitro and in vivo. Our work might highlight the promising application of MXene-based nanoplatforms for cancer therapy.

Fluorescence imaging-guided diagnostics is one of the most promising approaches for facile detection of tumors in situ owing to its simple operation and non-invasiveness. As a crucial biomarker for primary ovarian cancers, β-galactosidase (βgal) has been demonstrated to be the significant molecular target for visualization of ovarian tumors. Herein, a membrane-permeable fluorescent chemosensor (namely, LAN-βgal) was synthesized for β-gal-specific detection using the D-galactose residue as a specific recognition unit and LAN-OH (Φ F = 0.47) as a fluorophore. After β-gal was digested, the fluorescence of the initially quenched LANβgal (Φ F < 0.001) was enhanced by up to more than 2000-fold, which exceeded the fluorescence enhancement of other previously reported probes. We also demonstrated that the chemosensor LAN-βgal could visualize endogenous β-gal and distinguish ovarian cancer cells from normal ovarian cells. Further, the chemosensor LAN-βgal was successfully applied to visualize the back tumor-bearing mouse model and peritoneal metastatic ovarian cancer model in vivo. More importantly, through in situ spraying, the proposed chemosensor was successfully employed to assist in the surgical resection of ovarian cancer tumors due to its high tumor-to-normal (T/N) tissue fluorescence ratio of 218. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest T/N tissue fluorescence ratio ever reported. We believe that the LAN-βgal chemosensor can be utilized as a new tool for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer.

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