“One Stone, Four Birds” Ion Engineering to Fabricate Versatile Core–Shell Organosilica Nanoparticles for Intelligent Nanotheranostics

• Published in: ACS nano 2022-06, Vol.16 (6), p.9785-9798
• Main Authors: Yan, Saisai, Sun, Panpan, Niu, Niu, Zhang, Zhijun, Xu, Weilin, Zhao, Siyi, Wang, Lei, Wang, Dong, Tang, Ben Zhong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c03550

Developing effective intelligent nanotheranostics is highly desirable for cancer treatment but remains challenging. In this study, an acidic tumor microenvironment-activated organosilica nanosystem, namely AD-Cu-DOX-HA, is straightforwardly constructed, which is composed of aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active photosensitizer, copper ion-engineered aminosilica, direct coordination polymer of doxorubicin (DOX), and targeting component hyaluronic acid (HA). AD-Cu-DOX-HA is able to accurately distinguish cancer cells over normal cells; meanwhile, it simultaneously exhibits selective accumulation and copper ion-mediated rapid disassembly and turn-on fluorescence in tumor tissue, consequently achieving efficient tumor diagnosis and tumor-growth inhibition through fluorescence imaging-navigated synergetic photodynamic therapy, copper ion-mediated chemodynamic therapy, and DOX-enabled chemotherapy. This work thus brings fresh insight into the exploration of versatile theranostics and presents a momentous advance for potential clinical cancer treatment.