Living photosynthetic microneedle patches for in situ oxygenation and postsurgical melanoma therapy

Abstract

Surgical excision remains the principal treatment for melanoma, while tumor recurrence and delayed wound healing often occur due to the residual tumor cells and hypoxic microenvironment in the postoperative skin wounds. Herein, we present a living photosynthetic microneedle (MN) patch (namely MA/CM@MN) loaded with microalgae (MA) and cuttlefish melanin (CM) for postsurgical melanoma therapy and skin wound healing. Benefiting from the oxygenic photosynthesis of the alive MA in the MN base, the MA/CM@MN can generate oxygen under light exposure, thus facilitating skin cell proliferation and protecting cells against hypoxia-induced cell death. In addition, with CM nanoparticles embedded in the MN tips, the MA/CM@MN can be effectively heated up under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation, contributing to a strong tumor killing efficacy on melanoma cells in vitro. Further experiments demonstrate that the NIR-irradiated MA/CM@MN effectively prevents local tumor recurrence and simultaneously promotes the healing of tumor-induced wounds after incomplete tumor resection in melanoma-bearing mice, probably because the MA/CM@MN can inhibit tumor cell proliferation, stimulate tumor cell apoptosis, and mitigate tissue hypoxia in light. These results indicate that the living photosynthetic MN patch offers an effective therapeutic strategy for postoperative cancer therapy and wound healing applications. Graphical Abstract Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-024-02982-8.