Dual-drug loaded hybrid nanoparticle for combined tumor cocktail chemo-photothermal therapy and anti-inflammation

Tumor chemotherapy (CT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) have been frequently used in combination to achieve photothermally controlled drug release and synergistic treatment with enhanced pharmaceutic efficacy. However, both CT and PTT can cause serious inflammation response during and after treatment, which would potentially lead to tumor relapse and/or metastasis. To overcome this obstacle, we prepared anti-inflammation drug curcumin (CUR) and anti-tumor drug doxorubicin (DOX) loaded polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticle through polymer self-assembly and dopamine (DA) self-polymerization, and decorated RGD peptide at nanoparticle surface. After being guided to subcutaneous 4T1 tumor site through RGD and integrin αvβ3 interaction, this dual-drug loaded nanoplatform not only showed outstanding anti-tumor efficacy against 4T1 tumor due to the synergistic effect between PDA mediated PTT and DOX chemotherapy (CT), but also was able to reduce inflammatory response during the treatment. This multi-modal nanoplatform largely resolves the side effect of combined CT-PTT, and significantly broadened its potential application in clinical.