An Organic Nanotherapeutic Agent Self‐Assembled from Cyanine and Cu (II) for Combined Photothermal and Chemodynamic Therapy

Abstract

Abstract Although the combination of photothermal/chemodynamic therapy (PTT/CDT) based on various inorganic nanomaterials has promising anticancer effects, poor biocompatibility and biodegradability of inorganic nanoplatforms pose obstacles to their use in clinic. On the contrary, nanoscale metal−organic particles are considered to be a promising platform because of their biocompatibility and efficient metabolism. Herein, HA@Cy‐Cu NPs are prepared using the coordination‐driven assembly of cyanine dyes with Cu 2+ ions. HA@Cy‐Cu NPs demonstrate excellent synergistic PTT/CDT, a high photothermal conversion efficiency (43%), and enhanced photostability. Moreover, Cu 2+ in the NPs can be reduced to Cu + by glutathione (GSH) and can transform H 2 O 2 to •OH, which down‐regulates intracellular GSH levels and up‐regulates significant oxidative damage. Therefore, promising in vivo tumor ablation is observed at a low dose of HA@Cy‐Cu, suggesting that the combination of PTT/CDT greatly improved the antitumor performance. HA@Cy‐Cu can further improve organic nano‐systems for anti‐tumor therapy by integrating PTT and CDT.