Degradable and Excretable Ultrasmall Transition Metal Selenide Nanodots for High‐Performance Computed Tomography Bioimaging‐Guided Photonic Tumor Nanomedicine in NIR‐II Biowindow

Abstract

Transition metal selenide nanodots (NDs) represent distinctive antitumor agents for cancer treatment, but their non‐biodegradability may bring serious adverse effects and potential long‐term toxicity to internal tissues/organs, which substantially hinder their further clinical translations. In this work, the construction of a multifunctional theranostic nanosystem based on degradable and excretable ultrasmall Rh3Se8 NDs by a general bovine serum albumin‐templated strategy is reported. The constructed Rh3Se8 NDs exhibit distinctively high photothermal‐conversion efficiency (57.5%) in the second near‐infrared biowindow, making them highly applicable for photoacoustic imaging and photonic hyperthermia at the desired wavelength. Rh3Se8 NDs exhibit a high tumor growth inhibition rate (98.1%) on 4T1 breast tumor‐bearing mice due to the desirable photonic hyperthermia performances. Especially, the fabricated Rh3Se8 NDs feature the large X‐ray attenuation coefficients of the Rh component for contrast‐enhanced X‐ray computed tomography imaging. Importantly, the prominent biodegradability of Rh3Se8 NDs enables their quick excretion out of the body for potentially avoiding inflammation and mitigating long‐term toxicity. Therefore, this work highlights the construction of proof‐of‐concept biodegradable and excretable ultrasmall inorganic theranostic nanosystems for multiple bioimaging‐guided cancer nanotherapeutics, guaranteeing the further clinical translations of inorganic nanoparticles in biomedicine.

Dissolution Behaviour of Metal-Oxide Nanomaterials in Various Biological Media

“…Toxicological effects of ENMs, including MeOx, are closely related to their distinct physical–chemical properties [ 10 ], out of which solubility and surface reactivity are recognised to be particularly important for read-across justification [ 8 ]. In nanomedicine applications, knowledge of ENM dissolution in biological fluids is also important as biopersistent ENMs may pose “potential long-term toxicity to internal tissues/organs” [ 11 , 12 ]. Efforts are thus made worldwide to develop inorganic therapeutic agents that are safe and degradable under physiological conditions’ effects [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] as this may contribute to a reduction of long-term accumulation in the body and mitigate toxicity.…”

“…In nanomedicine applications, knowledge of ENM dissolution in biological fluids is also important as biopersistent ENMs may pose “potential long-term toxicity to internal tissues/organs” [ 11 , 12 ]. Efforts are thus made worldwide to develop inorganic therapeutic agents that are safe and degradable under physiological conditions’ effects [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] as this may contribute to a reduction of long-term accumulation in the body and mitigate toxicity.…”

Insights into Nanomedicine for Head and Neck Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

“…To circumvent all these problems, Dong et al produced thermo-organic inorganic ultrasound nanosystems for multiple bioimage-guided cancer nanotherapeutics that were biodegradable and easily excretable. Thus, this group proposed a multifunctional theranostic nanosystem based on degradable and excretable ultrasmall transition metal selenide nanodots with a general bovine serum albumin-templated strategy to be used in high performance computed tomography [ 176 ].…”

Microenvironment‐Tailored Catalytic Nanoprobe for Ratiometric NIR‐II Fluorescence/Photoacoustic Imaging of H2O2 in Tumor and Lymphatic Metastasis

“…[42][43][44][45][46][47] Over the past decade, fluorescence (FL) imaging with high sensitivity has been expanded to the second near-infrared (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) window for improving tissue penetration depth. [48][49][50][51][52][53] Moreover, photoacoustic (PA) imaging is able to realize deeper tissue penetration, but it often encounters limited sensitivity. [54][55][56][57] Thus, the integration of ratiometric NIR-II FL/PA contrast effects into catalytic probes would be especially helpful for precise in vivo sensing.…”