Self-Assembly of Intelligent Nanoplatform for Endogenous H2S-Triggered Multimodal Cascade Therapy of Colon Cancer

The specific in situ generation and activation of therapeutic agents with high spatiotemporal precision is expected to revolutionize cancer treatment. Here, we develop an intelligent nanoplatform (termed as NP-Cu), which is constructed by assembling photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6), hypoxia-responsive prodrug banoxantrone (AQ4N) with clickable dibenzocyclooctyne (DIBO) functionalized lysine (D-K), and cyclen-Cu²⁺ complex, for improving combination anticancer therapy. Cyclen-Cu²⁺ complex-induced photodynamic therapy (PDT) quenching in NP-Cu can be effectively and selectively activated by tumor-overproduced hydrogen sulfide (H₂S). More importantly, the reaction of endogenous H₂S with Cu²⁺ can generate photothermal agent copper sulfide (CuS) for photothermal therapy (PTT). Furthermore, with the activation of PTT and PDT, intracellular hypoxic stress is amplified to trigger AQ4N-associated chemodynamic therapy (CDT), leading to light-enhanced cascade therapy of PDT, PTT and CDT. Therefore, we present a simple and practical strategy for developing pathological stimuli responsive combination therapy, which has the potential of advancing precision cancer medicine.

Ultrasound/Acidity-Triggered and Nanoparticle-Enabled Analgesia

Local anesthetics have been extensively employed to treat postoperative pain, but they generally suffer from short acting duration and potential neurotoxicity under high local concentrations, which require the controlled and sustained releasing patterns of treatment drugs. In this work, it is reported, for the first time, the construction of hollow mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (HMONs)-based nanoplatforms for localized delivery and controlled/sustained release of loaded ropivacaine for local anesthetics, which can be repeatedly triggered by either external ultrasound irradiation or acidity triggering to release the payload, causing on-demand and long-lasting analgesia. Based on the in vivo mouse model of incision pain, the controlled and sustained release of ropivacaine achieves more than six hours of continuous analgesia, which is almost three times longer as compared to single free ropivacaine injection. The low neurotoxicity and high biocompatibility of HMONs for nanoparticle-enabled analgesia are also demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. This designed/constructed HMONs-based nanoplatform provides a potential methodology for clinical pain management via on-demand and long-lasting pain relief.