One-pot preparation of quercetin-doxorubicin dual-drug co-loaded nanosystem for multimodal treatment of tumors

Abstract

The limitations of tumor treatment have long been attributed to drug resistance and the restricted therapeutic effects of chemotherapy. This study presents a simple and efficient one-pot synthesis approach to prepare a high drug-loading composite nanoparticle PVP/Fe-DOX@QCT (PFDQ). PFDQ exhibits excellent tumor targeting properties, with sustained drug release in the acidic environment of tumors. Furthermore, loading doxorubicin (DOX) and quercetin (QCT) in PFDQ not only reduces the toxicity of DOX to healthy cells but also inhibits the function of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), thus effectively blocking drug efflux. In addition, PFDQ shows excellent photothermal properties. When combined with photothermal therapy, PFDQ can effectively achieve light-to-heat conversion, thereby exerts synergistic effects. By integrating chemotherapy (DOX and QCT) with photothermal therapy, PFDQ established a powerful multimodal anti-tumor platform.