Precise engineering of acorn-like Janus nanoparticles for cancer theranostics

Manjie Zhang; Yanxia Jiang; Kezhen Qi; Yangyang Song; Lu Li; Jing Zeng; Chungang Wang; Zhen Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.actbio.2021.05.037

Precise engineering of acorn-like Janus nanoparticles for cancer theranostics

Acta Biomater. 2021 Aug:130:423-434. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.05.037. Epub 2021 Jun 2.

Authors

Manjie Zhang¹, Yanxia Jiang¹, Kezhen Qi¹, Yangyang Song¹, Lu Li², Jing Zeng¹, Chungang Wang³, Zhen Zhao⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang, 110034, PR China.
² Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, 130024, PR China.
³ Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, 130024, PR China. Electronic address: wangcg925@nenu.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang, 110034, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Science, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, PR China. Electronic address: zhenzhao@cup.edu.cn.

PMID: 34087438
DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.05.037

Abstract

The anisotropic Janus nanoparticles (JNPs) provide synergistic effects by concentrating multiple properties on a single carrier. Herein, we reported a novel and simple approach to fabricate acorn-like poly(acrylic acid)-mesoporous calcium phosphate/polydopamine (PAA-mCaP/PDA) JNPs, which were selectively functionalized with methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol)thiol (PEG-SH) on PDA domains to obtain superior stability, while the other mCaP sides served as a storage space and passage for the anti-cancer drug of doxorubicin (DOX). The unique acorn-like PAA-mCaP/PDA-PEG JNPs were utilized as novel theranostic agents for photoacoustic (PA) imaging-guided synergistic cancer chemo-phototherapy. More importantly, this synthetic strategy can be applied to synthesize various mesoporous Janus nanocarriers, paving the way toward designed synthesis of acorn-like JNPs in nanomedicine, biosensing and catalysis. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The distinct acorn-like poly(acrylic acid)-mesoporous calcium phosphate/polydopamine Janus nanoparticles (PAA-mCaP/PDA JNPs) with a spherical-shaped PAA-mCaP core and PDA half-shell were fabricated for the first time. To achieve superior stability, the acorn-like PAA-mCaP/PDA JNPs were selectively functionalized with methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol)thiol (PEG-SH) on PDA domains to obtain acorn-like PAA-mCaP/PDA-PEG JNPs. The resultant acorn-like PAA-mCaP/PDA-PEG JNPs own an excellent biocompatibility, high drug-loading contents, good photothermal conversion efficiency, photoacoustic (PA) imaging capacity and pH/NIR dual-responsive properties, enabling the acorn-like JNPs to be applied for PA imaging-guided synergistic cancer chemo-phototherapy. More importantly, the synthetic approach could be extended to prepare acorn-like mesoporous inorganic substances/PDA JNPs for specific applications.

Keywords: Acorn-like Janus nanoparticles; Chemo-photothermal therapy; Liver cancer; Photoacoustic imaging; Polydopamine half-shell.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Doxorubicin / pharmacology
Multifunctional Nanoparticles*
Nanoparticles*
Neoplasms* / drug therapy
Phototherapy
Precision Medicine

Substances

Doxorubicin