Targeted Designing of Multimodal Tumor-Seeking Nanomedicine for Breast Cancer-Specific Triple-Therapeutic Effects.

Abstract

Integrated tumor-seeking nanomedicine (TSN) is designed to achieve a high therapeutic anticancer effect that is highly desirable for effective cancer treatment to overcome the detrimental effects of conventional therapies. However, direct administration of drugs cannot achieve a high level of specificity, which remains a formidable challenge. To address the confines, incorporation of multifunctionalities to maximize the specificity of TSN must be performed; TSN picks up multiple cargoes that are initially arrested at the core location and delivers each type simultaneously to a specified destination. Here, we introduce a valuable approach of Her2/neu-rich tumor cell surface-receptor-targeting TSN, which was highly pH-responsive and significantly realized the selective triple-therapeutic effects of blocking Her2/neu functions, chemotherapy, and phototherapy (photodynamic therapy (PDT)/photothermal therapy (PTT)). Therefore, the unprecedented selectivity of TSN provides a triple-therapeutic effect to spread the repertoire of "TSN" targets for future clinically relevant translation in improving breast cancer therapy.