Engineering a versatile
oncotherapy nanoplatform integrating both
diagnostic and therapeutic functions has always been an intractable
challenge in targeted cancer treatment. Herein, to actualize the theme
of precise medicine, a nanoplatform is developed by anchoring Mn-Cdots
to doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded mesoporous silica-coated gold cube-in-cubes
core/shell nanocomposites and further conjugating them to a Arg-Gly-Asp
(RGD) peptide (denoted as RGD-CCmMC/DOX) to achieve an active-targeting
effect. Under 635 nm irradiation, the nanoplatform acts as oxygen
nanogenerator that produces O2
in situ and amplifies the content of singlet oxygen (1O2) in the hypoxic tumor microenvironment (TME), which has been demonstrated
to attenuate tumor hypoxia and synchronously enhance photodynamic
efficacy. Moreover, the gold cube-in-cube core in this work has been
proven as a photothermal agent for hyperthermia, which exhibits a
favorable photothermal effect with a 65.6% calculated photothermal
conversion efficiency under 808 nm irradiation. In addition, the nanoplatform
achieves heat- and pH-sensitive drug release with precise control
to specific-tumor sites, executing combined chemo-phototherapy functions.
Besides, it functions as a multimodal bioimaging agent of photothermal,
fluorescence, and magnetic resonance imaging for the accurate diagnosis
and guidance of therapy. As validated by in vivo and in vitro assays, the TME-responsive nanoplatform is highly
biocompatible and effectively obliterates 4T1 tumor xenografts on
nude mice after triple-synergetic treatment. This work presents a
rational design of versatile nanoplatforms, which modulate the TME
to enable high therapeutic performance and multiplexed imaging, which
provides an innovative paradigm for targeted tumor therapy.
The
limited efficacy of “smart” nanotheranostic agents
in eradicating tumors calls for the development of highly desirable
nanoagents with diagnostics and therapeutics. Herein, to surmount
these challenges, we constructed an intelligent nanoregulator by coating
a mesoporous carbon nitride (C3N4) layer on
a core–shell nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dot (N-GQD)@hollow
mesoporous silica nanosphere (HMSN) and decorated it with a P-PEG-RGD
polymer, to achieve active-targeting delivery (designated as R-NCNP).
Upon irradiation, the resultant R-NCNP nanoregulators exhibit significant
catalytic breakdown of water molecules, causing a sustainable elevation
of oxygen level owing to the C3N4 shell, which
facilitates tumor oxygenation and relieves tumor hypoxia. The generated
oxygen bubbles serve as an echogenic source, triggering tissue impedance
mismatch, thereby enhancing the generation of an echogenicity signal,
making them laser-activatable ultrasound imaging agents. In addition,
the encapsulated photosensitizers and C3N4-layered
photosensitizer are simultaneously activated to maximize the yield
of ROS, actualizing a triple-photosensitizer hybrid nanosystem exploited
for enhanced PDT. Intriguingly, the N-GQDs endow the R-NCNP nanoregulator
with a photothermal effect for hyperthemia, making it exhibit considerable
photothermal outcomes and infrared thermal imaging (IRT). Importantly,
further analysis reveals that the polymer-modified R-NCNPs actively
target specific tumor tissues and display a triple-modal US/IRT/FL
imaging-assisted cooperative PTT/PDT for real-time monitoring of tumor
ablation and therapeutic evaluation. The rational synergy of triple-model
PDT and efficient PTT in the designed nanoregulator confers excellent
anticancer effects, as evidenced by in vitro and in vivo assays, which might explore more possibilities in
personalized cancer treatment.
Amyloid β-peptide oligomer (AβO) is widely acknowledged as the promising biomarker for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this work, we designed a three-dimensional (3D) DNA walker nanoprobe for AβO detection and real-time imaging in living cells and in vivo. The presence of AβO triggered the DNAzyme walking strand to cleave the fluorophore (TAMRA)-labeled substrate strand modified on the gold nanoparticle (AuNP) surface and release TAMRA-labeled DNA fragment, resulting in the recovery of fluorescent signal. The entire process was autonomous and continuous, without external fuel strands or protease, and finally produced plenty of TAMRA fluorescence, achieving signal amplification effect. The nanoprobe enabled the quantitative detection of AβO in vitro, and the limit of detection was 22.3 pM. Given the good biocompatibility of 3D DNA walker nanoprobe, we extended this enzyme-free signal amplification method to real-time imaging of AβO. Under the microscope, nanoprobe accurately located and visualized the distribution of AβO in living cells. Moreover, in vivo imaging results showed that our nanoprobe could be used to effectively distinguish the AD mice from the wild-type mice. This nanoprobe with the advantages of great sensitivity, high specificity, and convenience, provides an outstanding prospect for AD's early diagnosis development.
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