MXene-Based Nanocomposite-Facilitated Photothermal Therapy by Preventing Expression of Heat Shock Protein 90

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT), as a tumor optical treatment strategy, has the characteristics of being minimally invasive, precise and safe in the treatment of tumors. However, the efficacy of photothermal treatment is usually affected by the photothermal conversion efficiency of the material and the expression of heat shock protein in tumor cells. Ti3C2, a kind of MXene, is a novel two-dimensional material with excellent photothermal conversion efficiency and multiple unique characteristics, making it a promising candidate for multimodal tumor therapy. Therefore, inhibiting the synthesis of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) in the process of photothermal therapy can reduce the heat resistance of tumor cells, thereby improving the effect of photothermal therapy. In this study, we highlight the potential of utilizing hyaluronic acid (HA) modified Ti3C2 (Ti3C2@HA) as a carrier for delivering anti-sense oligonucleotides of HSP90 to inhibit HSP90 expression and enhance PPT efficacy. Under laser irradiation, the designed MXene-based nanocomposite (Ti3C2@ASO@HA) significantly inhibited the growth and effectively suppressed the migration of tumor cells. In addition, decreased expression of HSP90 is confirmed by western blotting. The results of this investigation provide a promising strategy for enhancing the photothermal therapy effects of tumor.