Illuminating Platinum Transportation while Maximizing Therapeutic Efficacy by Gold Nanoclusters <i>via</i> Simultaneous Near-Infrared-I/II Imaging and Glutathione Scavenging
Yuanyuan Yang, Yingjie Yu, Hao Chen, Xiangxi Meng, Wen Ma, Meng Yu, Ziyuan Li, Changhui Li, Haile Liu, Xiaodong Zhang, Haihua Xiao, Zhiqiang Yu
Abstract
Killing tumor cells with a visualized system is a promising strategy in tumor therapy to achieve minimal side effects and high efficiency. Herein, a theranostic nanomedicine (AuNCs-Pt) is developed based on nanocarrier gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) with bifunctions of both NIR-I/NIR-II imaging and glutathione-scavenging abilities. AuNCs-Pt possesses NIR-II imaging capability on a fatal high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) model in the deep abdomen, thus facilitating it to be a promising tool for monitoring platinum transportation. Meanwhile, AuNCs-Pt depletes intracellular glutathione to minimize platinum detoxification, effectively maximizing the chemotherapeutic efficacy of platinum. AuNCs-Pt is used to eradicate the tumor burden in this study on a HGSOC model and a patient-derived tumor xenograft model of hepatocellular carcinoma, suggesting great potential for clinical visualized therapy and platinum drug sensitization.