3D-printed NIR-responsive bullets as multifunctional nanodrug platforms for image-guided local chemo-photothermal therapy

Abstract

Multimodal cancer treatment that combines anticancer drug delivery with other therapeutic strategies, such as photothermal therapy, has shown enormous potential for biomedical applications. However, traditional nanoscale photothermal conversion agents require complicated synthesis processes and lack biosafety, detectability, and mechanical reinforcement ability in the hyperthermia platform. Here, we engineered near-infrared laser (NIR)-responsive bullets as multifunctional nanodrug platforms via a three-dimensional (3D) printing process as an image-guided versatile chemo-photothermal cancer treatment platform. This customizable platform not only serves as a container for anticancer nanodrugs but also possesses excellent radiopacity and high photothermal conversion efficiency, merging on-demand anticancer nanodrug release and hyperthermia effect. Benefiting from the combined chemo-photothermal therapy, the 3D-printed platform showed enhanced cytotoxicity to cancer cells in vitro. Furthermore, in vivo results confirmed effective on-demand nanodrug release and synergistic inhibition of tumor growth upon NIR laser irradiation. 3D-printed NIR-responsive bullets can synergistically enhance anticancer efficiency while evading potential clinical application risks, offering great potential for multimodal cancer therapies.