Near-Infrared/pH Dual-Responsive Nanosponges Encapsulating Gold Nanorods for Synergistic Chemo-phototherapy of Lung Cancer

Abstract

Combined chemo-photothermal therapy (CT-PTT) based on gold nanorods (AuNRs) loaded with chemotherapies has been recently introduced as a promising anticancer therapy with relatively lower side effects and higher efficacy over individual therapeutic approaches. We fabricated β-cyclodextrin-based nanosponges encapsulating PEGylated gold nanorods and doxorubicin (DOX), AuNR-S-PEG.β-CD NS-DOX, comprehensively characterized it using TEM, SEM, FE-SEM, FITR, and DLS and then evaluated it for CT-PTT versus the respective photothermal, AuNR-S-PEG.β-CD NS, and chemotherapy DOX. The synthesized AuNR-S-PEG.β-CD NS nanocomposite exhibited high photothermal conversion efficiency and high drug loading capacity based on the porous structure of the nanosponges. The drug-loaded nanocomposites, AuNR-S-PEG.β-CD NS-DOX, showed pH/NIR dual-responsive drug release behaviors, good biocompatibility, and efficient uptake into A549 lung cancer cells, as well as higher efficiency in killing cancer cells than single chemo- or photothermal therapy. Overall, the findings of this study demonstrate AuNR-S-PEG.β-CD NS-DOX nanocomposites as a promising candidate for combined chemo-photothermal therapy of lung cancer.