Activated
fibroblast-like synovial (FLS) cells are regarded as
an important target for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment via starvation
therapy mediated by glucose oxidase (GOx). However, the hypoxic RA-FLS
environment greatly reduces the oxidation process of glucose and leads
to a poor therapeutic effect of the GOx-based starvation therapy.
In this work, we designed a hollow mesoporous copper sulfide nanoparticles
(CuS NPs)-based smart GOx/atovaquone (ATO) codelivery system (named
as V-HAGC) targeting RA-FLS cells to realize a O2-economized
dual energy inhibition strategy to solve the limitation of GOx-based
starvation therapy. V-HAGC armed with dual multi-stimuli-responsive
“doorkeepers” can guard drugs intelligently. Once under
the stimulation of photothermal and acidic conditions at the targeted
area, the dual intelligent responsive “doors” would
orderly open to realize the controllable release of drugs. Besides,
the efficacy of V-HAGC would be much improved by the additional chemodynamic
therapy (CDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) stimulated by CuS NPs.
Meanwhile, the upregulated H2O2 and acid levels
by starvation therapy would promote the Fenton-like reaction of CuS
NPs under O2-economized dual energy inhibition, which could
enhance the PTT and CDT efficacy as well. In vitro and in vivo evaluations revealed V-HAGC with much
improved efficacy of this combination therapy for RA. In general,
the smart V-HAGC based on the O2-economized dual energy
inhibition strategy combined with enhanced CDT and PTT has the potential
to be an alternative methodology in the treatment of RA.
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