Cell Membrane-Coated Halloysite Nanotubes for Target-Specific Nanocarrier for Cancer Phototherapy

Abstract

Naturally-occurring halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) have many advantages for constructing target-specific delivery of phototherapeutic agents. Here, HNTs were labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and loaded with the type-II photosensitizer indocyanine green (ICG) for phototherapy. HNTs-FITC-ICG was structurally stable due to presence of HNTs as the nanocarrier and protective agent. The nanocarrier was further wrapped with red blood cell membrane (RBCM) to enhance the biocompatibility. The HNTs-FITC-ICG-RBCM nanocarrier show high cytocompatibility and hemocompatibility. Due to the photothermal effect of ICG, a significant temperature rising was achieved by irradiation of the nanocarrier using 808 nm laser. The photothermal temperature rising was used to kill the cancer cells effectively. The HNTs-FITC-ICG-RBCM nanocarrier was further linked with anti-EpCAM to endow it with targeting therapy performance against breast cancer, and the anti-EpCAM-conjugated nanocarrier exhibited significantly tumor-specific accumulation. The RBCM-coated and biocompatible HNTs nanocarrier is a promising candidate for target-specific therapy of cancer.

Membrane-wrapped nanoparticles for photothermal cancer therapy

“…PTT mediated by membrane-wrapped NPs is rapidly developing as a standalone therapy for solid-tumor cancers because it offers precise tumor ablation. Various kinds of NPs (e.g., nanoshells [44], nanorods [43], nanocages [46], and dye-loaded polymer NPs [91]) have been wrapped with different types of cell membranes (e.g., those derived from macrophages [44,69], RBCs [46,89], or cancer cells [60,73]) to improve their intratumoral accumulation and photothermal effect. When evaluated in murine models, these membrane-wrapped NPs have generally exhibited prolonged circulation, improved tumor delivery, and better PTT effects than their unwrapped or PEG-coated counterparts [43,44,46,60,69,85,89,91].…”

“…Beyond gold-based NPs, other materials have been used to enable PTT including polymer-based NPs [85], mesoporous silica loaded with IR780 [91], liposomes loaded with ICG [73], metal bismuth NPs [60], inorganic magnetic iron oxide NPs [69], and inorganic halloysite nanotubes loaded with ICG [89]. The ability to wrap such materials with cell-derived membranes for enhanced PTT has shown great promise.…”

“…Other examples of membrane-wrapped NPs explored for PTT alone include colon cancer cell membranewrapped bismuth NPs (which support homotypic tumor targeting) [60], and macrophage membrane-wrapped magnetic iron oxide NPs (which support tumor delivery through both cell adhesion molecules present on the macrophage membranes and through NP attraction to an externally applied magnet) [69]. Another example includes halloysite nanotubes loaded with ICG which were coated with antibody-modified RBC membranes to target epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) receptors that are overexpressed on breast cancer cells [89]. These examples and those discussed above demonstrate that a plethora of membrane-wrapping strategies can be utilized to enhance the success of PTT.…”

Nanomaterials: A Review about Halloysite Nanotubes, Properties, and Application in the Biological Field

“…Finally, anti-EpCAM was conjugated with HNTs-FITC-ICG-RBCM with the assistance of streptavidin to improve the specific uptake of breast cancer cells. The cell viability assay results for MCF-7 cells indicated that the HNTs-FITC-ICG-RBCM cytotoxicity was irradiation time and concentration dependent and that this could be potentially used in breast cancer treatment [ 147 ]. As evidenced by Lisuzzo et al, HNTs are excellent candidates as interfacially active inorganic particles for the formation of Pickering emulsions thanks to their advantages, as for example low cost, biocompatibility, mechanical strength, tubular morphology, etc.…”

Gold Nanorod-Incorporated Halloysite Nanotubes Functionalized with Antibody for Superior Antibacterial Photothermal Treatment

“…Consequently, HNTs have emerged as a prominent nanomaterial for various biomedical applications, including tableting [ 25 ], drug delivery [ 22 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ], tissue engineering [ 27 ], bioimaging [ 30 , 31 ], anti-cancer therapy [ 32 , 33 ], and antimicrobial solutions [ 34 ]. The latter three have been often realized by utilizing HNTs as ‘mothership’ carriers for cargoes ranging from quantum dots [ 35 , 36 ] through metal oxides NPs to precious metals [ 19 , 34 ], including gold [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ].…”