Microfluidic synthesis of fibronectin-coated polydopamine nanocomplexes for self-supplementing tumor microenvironment regulation and MR imaging-guided chemo-chemodynamic-immune therapy
Rui Yang, Mengsi Zhan, Zhijun Ouyang, Honghua Guo, Jiao Qu, Jindong Xia, Mingwu Shen, Xiangyang Shi
Abstract
Development of nanomedicines to overcome the hindrances of tumor microenvironment (TME) for tumor theranostics with alleviated side effects remains challenging. We report here a microfluidic synthesis of artesunate (ART)-loaded polydopamine (PDA)/iron (Fe) nanocomplexes (NCs) coated with fibronectin (FN). The created multifunctional [email protected]/FN NCs (FDRF NCs) with a mean size of 161.0 nm exhibit desired colloidal stability, monodispersity, r1 relaxivity (4.96 mM−1s−1), and biocompatibility. The co-delivery of the Fe2+ and ART enables enhanced chemodynamic therapy (CDT) through improved intracellular reactive oxygen species generation via a cycling reaction between Fe3+ and Fe2+ caused by the Fe3+-mediated glutathione oxidation and Fe2+-mediated ART reduction/Fenton reaction for self-supplementing TME regulation. Likewise, the combination of ART-mediated chemotherapy and the Fe2+/ART-regulated enhanced CDT enables noticeable immunogenic cell death, which can be collaborated with antibody-mediated immune checkpoint blockade to exert immunotherapy having significant antitumor immunity. The combined therapy improves the efficacy of primary tumor therapy and tumor metastasis inhibition by virtue of FN-mediated specific targeting of FDRF NCs to tumors with highly expressed αvβ3 integrin and can be guided through the Fe(III)-rendered magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. The developed FDRF NCs may be regarded as an advanced nanomedicine formulation for chemo-chemodynamic-immune therapy of different tumor types under MR imaging guidance.