A pH‐Driven Small‐Molecule Nanotransformer Hijacks Lysosomes and Overcomes Autophagy‐Induced Resistance in Cancer
Zhao Ma, Kai Lin, Menghuan Tang, Mythili Ramachandran, Reng Qiu, Jin Li, Lucas N. Solano, Yanyu Huang, Cristabelle De Souza, Sara Abou‐Adas, Bai Xiang, Lanwei Zhang, Minyong Li, Yuanpei Li
Abstract
Smart conversion of supramolecular structures in vivo is an attractive strategy in cancer nanomedicine, which is usually achieved via specific peptide sequences. Here we developed a lysosomal targeting small-molecule conjugate, PBC, which self-assembles into nanoparticles at physiological pH and smartly converts to nanofibrils in lysosomes of tumor cells. Such a transformation mechanically leads to lysosomal dysfunction, autophagy inhibition, and unusual cytoplasmic vacuolation, thus granting PBC a unique anticancer activity as a monotherapy. Importantly, the photo-activated PBC elicits significant phototoxicity to lysosomes and shows enormous advantages in overcoming autophagy-caused treatment resistance frequently occurring in conventional phototherapy. This improved phototherapy achieves a complete cure of oral cancer xenografts upon limited administration. Our work provides a new paradigm for the construction of nonpeptide nanotransformers with biomedical activities.