Self-synergistic effect of Prussian blue nanoparticles for cancer therapy: driving photothermal therapy and reducing hyperthermia-induced side effects

Xue Xie,Jianrong Wu,Junnian Hao,Wei Gao,Xiaojun Cai,Yuanyi Zheng

doi:10.1186/s12951-021-00819-2

Abstract

BackgroundPhotothermal therapy (PTT), involving application of localized hyperthermia to kill cancer cells, has attracted wide attention in cancer therapy. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during PTT may cause irreversible damage to healthy tissues around the tumor. Simultaneously, hyperthermia can stimulate inflammatory response, thus promoting tumor recurrence and metastasis. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to reduce the undesired side effects for further development of PTT.ResultsUsing a hydrothermal method, spherical Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBs) with uniform size were prepared. The PBs exhibited good dispersion and stability in saline with an average hydrodynamic size of 110 nm. The prepared PBs had a high photothermal conversion efficiency and photothermal stability. The PBs showed intrinsic ROS scavenging properties in vitro. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of PBs were also observed in vivo. Assessment of toxicity and endoplasmic reticulum stress-inducing ability showed that PBs did not induce an inflammatory response. Tissues of major organs of mice stained with hematoxylin–eosin showed no significant damage, indicating good biocompatibility and safety of PBs.ConclusionThe designed single-component PBs with intrinsic ROS scavenging and anti-inflammatory properties could avoid inflammatory response and heat stress-induced ROS during PTT. Thus, further research on PBs is worthwhile to achieve their clinical translation and promote the development of PTT.

Highlights

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a non-invasive anticancer treatment, which has yielded good results in some clinical trials [1, 2]
The UV–vis-NIR absorbance spectrum of Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBs) revealed a wide absorption in the NIR region (Fig. 2d), and the absorption peak at 700 nm could be attributed to the intermetallic charge-transfer band from FeII to FeIII in the structure of PBs
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectroscopy (Additional file 1: Fig. S2) displayed a characteristic peak around 2085 cm−1 of F eII-CN-FeIII. N2 absorption–desorption results showed that the specific surface area of PBs was 115 m2 g−1 and the average piled pore diameter was 12 nm (Fig. 2g)

Summary

Introduction

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a non-invasive anticancer treatment, which has yielded good results in some clinical trials [1, 2]. To circumvent the above problems, photothermal conversion agents with anti-inflammatory effects may be of great significance for the management of aggressive cancers Based on this strategy, the anti-inflammatory prodrug pyrene-aspirin was loaded on gold nanorodencapsulated graphitic nanocapsules to achieve photothermal ablation of the tumor and simultaneously alleviate PTT-triggered inflammation [14]. Gold nanorods coated with a platinum shell (PtAuNRs) were designed as an efficient ROS scavenger and photothermal conversion agent This PtAuNRs system showed high photothermal efficiency and ROSscavenging property, which could be employed to effectively treat cancer cells as they induced hyperthermia but simultaneously reduced PTT-induced ROS generation [16]. It is of paramount importance to reduce the undesired side effects for further development of PTT

Methods

Results

Conclusion