Encapsulation of Au/Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles into a polymer nanoarchitecture with combined near infrared-triggered chemo-photothermal therapy based on intracellular secondary protein understanding

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. B, Materials for biology and medicine Materials for biology and medicine, 2017-08, Vol.5 (29), p.5774-5782
• Main Authors: Chen, Ching-Wen, Syu, Wei-Jhe, Huang, Tzu-Chi, Lee, Yao-Chang, Hsiao, Jong-Kai, Huang, Kuo-Yi, Yu, Hsiu-Ping, Liao, Mei-Yi, Lai, Ping-Shan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2050-750X; 2050-7518
• DOI: 10.1039/C7TB00944E

The combination of the functions of near infrared-triggered molecule release and chemo-photothermal therapy improved the therapeutic effect, but clarification of the cancer damage pathway in terms of protein molecule levels has yet to be well studied. In this study, we developed a polymer encapsulation synthesis of Au/Fe O @polymer nanoparticles as a Swiss army knife to integrate near infrared absorption, magnetism, and doxorubicin (DOX) loading ability into a single package. By exposing to near infrared absorption, the Au/Fe O @polymer nanoparticles possessed photothermal therapy, exhibiting anti-tumor growth suppression of HT-29 tumor-bearing nude mice with less body weight loss. To deeply understand the interactions between the drug-loaded nanocarriers and the protein structures of the treated cells, delivering therapeutic DOX agent combined with photothermal therapy with Au/Fe O @polymer nanostructures to cancer cells was investigated. Synchrotron-based FTIR imaging and confocal imaging showed direct observation of the efficient photo-chemotherapy impacting MCF7, MCF7/ADR, and HT-29 cells after the near infrared radiation-triggered DOX release. Our demonstration outlines how the cell destruction in the molecular mechanism was initiated by chemo-photothermal combination therapy after the translocation of DOX from the cytosol to the nuclei, leading to altered intracellular secondary proteins. For preclinical application of potential diagnosis to cancer cells, Au/Fe O @polymer nanoparticles performed integrated computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement and near infrared-triggered chemo-photothermal therapy.