Ultrasmall PEI-Decorated Bi2Se3 Nanodots as a Multifunctional Theranostic Nanoplatform for in vivo CT Imaging-Guided Cancer Photothermal Therapy.

Peng Zhang,Lei Wang,Xiuying Chen,Qinghai Yuan,Xiang Li

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.795012

Abstract

Bi-based nanomaterials, such as Bi2Se3, play an important part in biomedicine, such as photothermal therapy (PTT) and computed tomography (CT) imaging. Polyethylenimine (PEI)-modified ultrasmall Bi2Se3 nanodots were prepared using an ultrafast synthetic method at room temperature (25°C). Bi2Se3 nanodots exhibited superior CT imaging performance, and could be used as effective photothermal reagents owing to their broad absorption in the ultraviolet–visible–near infrared region. Under irradiation at 808 nm, PEI-Bi2Se3 nanodots exhibited excellent photothermal-conversion efficiency of up to 41.3%. Good biocompatibility and significant tumor-ablation capabilities were demonstrated in vitro and in vivo. These results revealed that PEI-Bi2Se3 nanodots are safe and a good nanotheranostic platform for CT imaging-guided PTT of cancer.

Highlights

The early diagnosis of cancer and “precision” medicine are major challenges for oncologists
A novel near absorption in the infrared (NIR) light-responsive nanotheranostic platform based on PEI-Bi2Se3 nanodots for computed tomography (CT) imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer was fabricated (Scheme 1)
Bi2Se3 nanodots had promising potential for CT imaging-guided PTT of cancer owing to an efficient photothermal performance, strong absorption in the NIR region, and the high X-ray attenuation coefficient of Bi3+

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The early diagnosis of cancer and “precision” medicine are major challenges for oncologists. Bi2Se3, with its broad near absorption in the infrared (NIR) region, excellent efficiency for photothermal conversion, good biocompatibility, and metabolizability, has been used as a PTT agent (Song et al, 2015; Cheng et al, 2016; Xie et al, 2017; Huang et al, 2019). Bi2Se3 has been used widely as a powerful nanotheranostic agent in CT imaging-guided PTT of cancer. We report a facile room-temperature method for synthesizing ultrasmall polyethylenimine-decorated Bi2Se3 (PEI-Bi2Se3) nanodots for CT imaging-guided PTT of cancer in vitro and in vivo. The outstanding CT imaging and photothermal-ablation capacity observed in vitro and in vivo, and non-significant long-term toxicity observed in vivo, revealed that PEI-Bi2Se3 nanodots could achieve CT imaging-guided PTT of cancer. PEI-Bi2Se3 nanodots could be powerful and safe nanotheranostic agents in cancer therapy

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

ETHICS STATEMENT