Mitochondrial Targeting Strategy for Enhanced Photothermal Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a light‐triggered therapeutic method showing great promise in cancer treatment. For safe and effective PTT, minimal invasion and high specificity are needed. Mitochondria have been recognized as an attractive target to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of cancer treatment. Here, we present a unique type of CaCO3‐encapsulated Bi2S3 nanorods (Bi2S3@CaCO3 NRs) for improving PTT therapeutic efficacy based on a novel mitochondria‐targeted strategy. Such NRs with Bi2S3 NRs as the photothermal agent, carboxylated short‐chain PEG as bridging group and CaCO3 as pH responsive surface coating showed not only remarkable promotion of cancer uptake efficiency, but also enhanced mitochondria targeting ability. The significant improvement of phototherapeutic efficacy of Bi2S3@CaCO3 suggests that our mitochondria‐targeting strategy is a reliable and useful method for efficient cancer therapy.