Drug delivery with Mn‐doped MoO <sub>2</sub> for photothermal‐enhanced chemotherapy in fighting cancers
Ping Zhao, Han Lu Zheng, Ju Peng, Xinglong Li, Fazal Raziq, Xiaojun Liu, H. Yu, Jinlu Tang, Yifan Kang, Wenhuan Huang
Abstract
Abstract Although chemotherapy has been intensively applied in cancer treatments, its inadequate therapeutic efficacy and severe side effects are still under constant concerns. Nanoplatforms used as anti‐tumor drug delivery system (DDS) have attracted tremendous attentions owing to their various intriguing properties. Herein, Mn‐doped MoO 2 nanoparticles coated with ZrO 2 and capped with Bi 2 O 3 have been designed as a DDS, namely MMZB. MMZB possesses good magnetic properties, great photothermal conversion ability, sensitive tumor microenvironment (TME) responsiveness, and good biocompatibility in hemocompatibility in vitro. Thus, MMZB has been utilized to load the chemotherapeutic agent daunomycin (DNM) (MMZB@DNM) for chemo‐photothermal combined therapy. MMZB@DNM demonstrates a more impressive anti‐cancer effect than the individual photothermal or chemotherapy both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the analysis of tumor specimen sections and serum levels after the treatment indicates negligible side effects for MMZB@DNM in vivo. This contribution provides a valuable concept in designing therapeutic agents for achieving significantly enhanced tumor treatments, which benefits from the synergistic combination of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy in one single nanoagent.