Multifunctional FeCo-graphitic carbon nanocrystals for combined imaging, drug delivery and tumor-specific photothermal therapy in mice

Abstract

Ultrasmall FeCo-graphitic carbon shell nanocrystals (FeCo/GC) are promising multifunctional materials capable of highly efficient drug delivery in vitro and magnetic resonance imaging in vivo. In this work, we demonstrate the use of FeCo/GC for highly effective cancer therapy through combined drug delivery, tumor-selective near-infrared photothermal therapy, and cancer imaging of a 4T1 syngeneic breast cancer model. The graphitic carbon shell of the ~4 nm FeCo/GC readily loads doxorubicin (DOX) via π-π stacking and absorbs near-infrared light giving photothermal heating. When used for cancer treatment, intravenously administrated FeCo/GC-DOX led to complete tumor regression in 45% of mice when combined with 20 min of near-infrared laser irradiation selectively heating the tumor to 43-45 °C . In addition, the use of FeCo/GC-DOX results in reduced systemic toxicity compared with free DOX and appears to be safe in mice monitored for over 1 yr. FeCo/GC-DOX is shown to be a highly integrated nanoparticle system for synergistic cancer therapy leading to tumor regression of a highly aggressive tumor model.

Nanoparticles in biomedical applications

“…These properties allow for its use in many biomedical applications; bioimaging 34,41,56,62], hyperthermia [20,21,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]55], drug delivery , cell labelling [26,70] and gene delivery [71][72][73][74][75][76][77]. From our most recent review, it was seen that other magnetic nanomaterials such as Fe-Co, Cu-Ni, Fe-Ni, Co-Fe 2 O 4 and Mn-Fe 2 O 4 , nanoparticles are being investigated for use in bioimaging [78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91]109], hyperthermia [92]…”

“…This review investigates other nanosystems such as metallic nanoparticles like gold (Au) [112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130] and silver (Ag) , bimetallic nanoparticles like iron cobalt (Fe-Co) [78][79][80][92][93][94][95][96][97]108,109] and iron platinum (Fe-Pt) [155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172] and metal oxides including titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) [1...…”

Recent advances in the development of organic photothermal nano-agents

“…In recent years, a large variety of NIR-absorbing inorganic nanomaterials, such as different noble metal (e.g. Au, Ag, Pt) nanostructures [8][9][10][11][12][13], carbon nanomaterials [3,4,6,7,14], as well as transition metal sulfide or oxide nanoparticles [15][16][17][18][19][20][21], have been widely explored by many research teams including ours as photothermal agents for PTT ablation of cancer in vitro and in vivo. Despite the high therapeutic efficacy obtained in many pre-clinical animal models, the non-biodegradable nature and Nano Res.…”

Applications of phototheranostic nanoagents in photodynamic therapy

“…Development and evaluation of phototheranostic agents requires expertise in medicine, chemistry, biology, physics and engineering [15]. Extensive research is under way in this field as revealed by recent publications [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59].…”