Biodegradable Amorphous Copper Iron Tellurite Promoting the Utilization of Fenton-Like Ions for Efficient Synergistic Cancer Theranostics
Huyun Liu, Renting Jiang, Yaxuan Lu, Beibei Shan, Yu Wen, Ming Li
Abstract
The major hurdles of chemodynamic therapy (CDT) are nondegradability and low-efficiency utilization of chemodynamic agents, and intracellular glutathione (GSH)-induced rapid scavenging of hydroxyl radicals (•OH). Here, a biodegradable a-CFT@IP6@BSA agent is reported for efficient cancer therapy by encapsulating amorphous copper iron tellurite nanoparticles (a-CFT NPs) into inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) and bovine serum albumin (BSA). The biggest merits of this agent are the GSH responsive degradation and amorphous structure, allowing the tumor-specific release of plenty of Cu+ ions and their high-efficiency utilization for •OH production via the Fenton-like reaction. Besides, the released Cu+ ions can deplete the intracellular GSH and thereby protect •OH from scavenging, greatly improving the CDT efficiency. Further, it is found that the a-CFT@IP6@BSA NP treatment down-regulates the levels of glutathione peroxidase 4 and BCL-2, indicating GSH depletion-associated ferroptosis and IP6-induced apoptotic death of cancer cells. Utilizing the T1/T2 dual-modal magnetic resonance imaging capability, the a-CFT@IP6@BSA NPs are demonstrated with excellent in vivo anticancer efficiency and have great potential for imaging-guided cancer treatment.