TY - JOUR
T1 - Facile synthesis of Prussian blue nanoparticles as pH-responsive drug carriers for combined photothermal-chemo treatment of cancer
AU - Chen, Huajian
AU - Ma, Yan
AU - Wang, Xianwen
AU - Wu, Xiaoyi
AU - Zha, Zhengbao
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81501590; No. 31500808), the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1608085MH188), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2015HGCH0006; No. JZ2015HGBZ0103).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Due to their clinical use approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB NPs) have been explored as a new generation of photothermal agents for cancer photothermal therapy (PTT). However, PTT treatment alone has limited therapeutic efficiency since it can not eliminate tumor cells completely. Herein we developed a facile method for the synthesis of PB NPs through a combined ligand exchange and thin film hydration process, modified the PB NPs by lipid-PEG conjugation, producing PEGylated PB NPs, and encapsulated doxorubicin (DOX) in the PEGylated PB NPs via hydrophobic interactions, creating PEGylated PB-DOX NPs. Obtained from the results of fluorescence intensity measurements, the loading efficiency and content of DOX in PEGylated PB-DOX NPs was as high as 98.0% and 9.2%, respectively. The DOX release from the PEGylated PB-DOX NPs was significantly enhanced at acidic pH, likely due to the protonation of the amine group, and a three-parameter simulation model was used to gain insight into the pH effect on DOX release. Moreover, a cell cytotoxicity study in vitro shows that PEGylated PB-DOX NPs exhibits a remarkable photothermal-chemo synergistic effect to HeLa cells, attributed to both photothermal ablation mediated by the PEGylated PB NPs and enhanced cellular uptake of DOX. Therefore, our study may open a new path for the production of PB NPs as drug delivery vehicles for combined photothermal-chemo cancer treatment.
AB - Due to their clinical use approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Prussian blue nanoparticles (PB NPs) have been explored as a new generation of photothermal agents for cancer photothermal therapy (PTT). However, PTT treatment alone has limited therapeutic efficiency since it can not eliminate tumor cells completely. Herein we developed a facile method for the synthesis of PB NPs through a combined ligand exchange and thin film hydration process, modified the PB NPs by lipid-PEG conjugation, producing PEGylated PB NPs, and encapsulated doxorubicin (DOX) in the PEGylated PB NPs via hydrophobic interactions, creating PEGylated PB-DOX NPs. Obtained from the results of fluorescence intensity measurements, the loading efficiency and content of DOX in PEGylated PB-DOX NPs was as high as 98.0% and 9.2%, respectively. The DOX release from the PEGylated PB-DOX NPs was significantly enhanced at acidic pH, likely due to the protonation of the amine group, and a three-parameter simulation model was used to gain insight into the pH effect on DOX release. Moreover, a cell cytotoxicity study in vitro shows that PEGylated PB-DOX NPs exhibits a remarkable photothermal-chemo synergistic effect to HeLa cells, attributed to both photothermal ablation mediated by the PEGylated PB NPs and enhanced cellular uptake of DOX. Therefore, our study may open a new path for the production of PB NPs as drug delivery vehicles for combined photothermal-chemo cancer treatment.
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U2 - 10.1039/c6ra24979e
DO - 10.1039/c6ra24979e
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85008701987
VL - 7
SP - 248
EP - 255
JO - RSC Advances
JF - RSC Advances
SN - 2046-2069
IS - 1
ER -