A temperature-responsive drug release system based on MoS2 nanosheets and 1-tetradecanol

Abstract

The high specific surface area and photothermal ability of 2D MoS2 nanostructures have attracted a lot of attention in combined photo-chemotherapy. In this research, we synthesized PEGylated MoS2 with dispersed nanosheet morphology through a simple hydrothermal method and loaded them with Doxorubicin (DOX) as an anticancer drug (MoS2-PEG/DOX). Synthesized MoS2 nanosheets demonstrate a high drug loading capacity (DLC) of 122.2%. This is the first report of the high DLC for MoS2-PEG nanosheets synthesized with the hydrothermal method. To prevent premature drug release and increase DLC to 184%, MoS2-PEG/DOX is coated with 1-tetradecanol (TD) which is a bio-compatible temperature-responsive material (MoS2-PEG/DOX@TD). The prepared nanostructure is a dual-responsive platform that drug release can be controlled by pH and NIR irradiation. The release profile was investigated and compared at normal and acidic pH and three different conditions for each pH (body temperature, ambient mild hyperthermia temperature, and NIR irradiation). The results indicate that the most amount of DOX is released in acidic pH and hyperthermia temperature (43 ℃). NIR irradiation has an extensive effect on DOX release in comparison with hyperthermia temperature so 34.75% of the drug is released within only 30 min of laser irradiation with a power density of 1 W/cm2 in acidic pH. MTT results indicate that this nanoplatform is biocompatible. Hence dispersed MoS2-PEG nanosheets with high DLC, coated with TD for the first time, can improve the efficiency of synergistic photo-chemotherapy and can solve the problem of premature drug release from MoS2 nanosheets and release drug under controlled conditions.