Tumor reduction-sensitive self-delivery molecular prodrug nanomedicine for enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy

Abstract

Chemotherapy has shown promising potential for overcoming various tumors in clinic, however, the chemotherapeutic strategy suffers from the lower therapeutic efficiency and boring side-effect. Self-delivery drug nanomedicine with high drug loading, precise controlled release, low excipients-trigged adverse reaction and high efficiency in treatment have been as one very promising strategy for promoting chemotherapy. Herein, we reasonably design a reductive stimuli-triggered molecular prodrug containing a camptothecin (CPT) and near-infrared hemicyanine dye (CyOH), which can be formed nanoassemblies (denoted as CyCPT) via nano-precipitated method for enhanced chemotherapy. Peculiarly, CyCPT not only improves the water-solubility of hydrophobic CPT but also has outstanding cellular internalization and tumor permeability, showing a remarkable kill-ability for various tumor cells. Meanwhile, the CyCPT shows excellent in-vivo biosafety. Overall, the self-delivery nanomedicine may present a potential appealing nanoplatform for tumor eradication.