Engineering MnO2 Nanomulberries for Enhancing PTT/PDT Synergistic Cancer Therapy

Abstract Considering the great catalyzation ability to degrade H 2 O 2 into O 2 , MnO 2 nanoparticles are utilized as nanocarriers in phototherapies for anticancer treatments to overcome the hypoxia tumor microenvironment (TME). However, the confliction of size requirement between promoting tumor delivery and cellular uptake and catalyzing H 2 O 2 degradation limits the functions of MnO 2 nanoparticles. Herein, this work presents strategy to cross‐link small‐sized MnO 2 nanoparticles, during which the indocyanine green (ICG) is loaded, thus obtaining large‐sized MnO 2 nanomulberries (MnINCs) for overcoming the size requirement confliction. The MnINCs present great performances in both photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) effects. This work tests the therapeutic efficacy of MnINCs in various human cancer cell lines including human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa), human breast cancer cell line (MCF‐7), human hepatoma cell line (HepG‐2), human gastric carcinoma cell line (MGC803), and a Hela cell‐derived xenograft model. The satisfying growth inhibition effects are observed in all these cell lines and the tumor model. The demonstrations for using MnINCs to overcome the size requirement confliction between promoting tumor delivery and cellular uptake and catalyzing H 2 O 2 degradation highlight the promising application potentials of the clustering strategy for developing innovative treatments in cancer therapy.