Nanocatalytic Therapy Research Articles

Ultrasmall Cu2-xS nanodots as photothermal-enhanced Fenton nanocatalysts for synergistic tumor therapy at NIR-II biowindow

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated nanocatalytic therapy, as conducted by the tumor microenvironment to generate toxic hydroxyl (OH) radicals with the assistant of Fenton nanocatalysts, exhibits high tumor-therapeutic promise due to its high therapeutic selectivity and desirable therapeutic outcome. The mostly explored Fe-based Fenton nanocatalysts-enabled nanocatalytic cancer therapy substantially suffers from lowed pH condition and the corresponding therapeutic effect is still far from satisfactory for further clinic application. In this work, we report, for the first time, that copper (Cu)-based nanocatalysts have the intrinsic capability to catalyze hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into hydroxyl radicals in a wide range pH condition with the comparable and even better performance as compared to mostly explored Fe-based nanocatalysts. Especially, ultrasmall (≤5 nm) PEGylated Cu2-xS nanodots (Cu2-xS-PEG) were fabricated to serve as the novel Fenton nanocatalysts for nanocatalytic tumor therapy. Importantly, taking the unique advantage of high near infrared (NIR) light absorbance at NIR-II biowindow (1000–1350 nm), light-activated photonic theranostic modality, i.e. photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy at both NIR-II biowindows was introduced, which could efficiently delineate/monitor the tumor regions and synergistically enhance Fenton-mediated therapeutic efficacy by photonic hyperthermia, respectively. Both systematic in vitro and in vivo experiments have demonstrated the high therapeutic efficacy of Cu2-xS-enabled synergistic photothermal hyperthermia-enhanced nanocatalytic therapy. This work not only provides a nanoparticle-augmented synergistic cancer-therapeutic modality, but also enriches the totally new nanocatalyst types for catalytic Fenton reaction-based nanocatalytic tumor therapy.

Self-evolved hydrogen peroxide boosts photothermal-promoted tumor-specific nanocatalytic therapy

Highly efficient nanocatalytic tumor therapy has been achieved by in situ self-supplied H2O2-triggered and photothermally-promoted Fenton reaction by the rational design of two-dimensional composite nanoreactors.

Nanocatalysts-Augmented and Photothermal-Enhanced Tumor-Specific Sequential Nanocatalytic Therapy in Both NIR-I and NIR-II Biowindows.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) has been increasingly recognized as a crucial contributor to tumorigenesis. Based on the unique TME for achieving tumor-specific therapy, here a novel concept of photothermal-enhanced sequential nanocatalytic therapy in both NIR-I and NIR-II biowindows is proposed, which innovatively changes the condition of nanocatalytic Fenton reaction for production of highly efficient hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and consequently suppressing the tumor growth. Evidence suggests that glucose plays a vital role in powering cancer progression. Encouraged by the oxidation of glucose to gluconic acid and H2 O2 by glucose oxidase (GOD), an Fe3 O4 /GOD-functionalized polypyrrole (PPy)-based composite nanocatalyst is constructed to achieve diagnostic imaging-guided, photothermal-enhanced, and TME-specific sequential nanocatalytic tumor therapy. The consumption of intratumoral glucose by GOD leads to the in situ elevation of the H2 O2 level, and the integrated Fe3 O4 component then catalyzes H2 O2 into highly toxic •OH to efficiently induce cancer-cell death. Importantly, the high photothermal-conversion efficiency (66.4% in NIR-II biowindow) of the PPy component elevates the local tumor temperature in both NIR-I and NIR-II biowindows to substaintially accelerate and improve the nanocatalytic disproportionation degree of H2 O2 for enhancing the nanocatalytic-therapeutic efficacy, which successfully achieves a remarkable synergistic anticancer outcome with minimal side effects.