Fe-Doped Polyoxometalate as Acid-Aggregated Nanoplatform for NIR-II Photothermal-Enhanced Chemodynamic Therapy

Abstract

The combination of reactive oxygen species-involved chemodynamic therapy (CDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) holds great promise in enhancing anticancer effects. Herein, a multifunctional Fe-doped polyoxometalate (Fe-POM) cluster is fabricated via a simple method. The Fe-POM can not only be utilized as PTT agents to generate a hyperthermia effect for cancer cell killing under near-infrared (NIR) II laser (1060 nm) irradiation, but also can be used as CDT agents to convert endogenous less-reactive H₂ O₂ into harmful ·OH and simultaneously deplete glutathione for an amplified CDT effect. Notably, the hyperthermia induced by PTT can further enhance the CDT effect, achieving a synergistic PTT/CDT effect. Owing to the self-assembling properties at lowered pH values, the Fe-POM exhibits high tumor accumulation as revealed by photoacoustic imaging. More importantly, Fe-POM enables effective destruction of tumors without inducing noticeable damage to normal tissues under 1060 nm laser irradiation. The work presents a new type of multifunctional agent with high PTT/CDT efficacy, providing promising methods for PTT-enhanced CDT in a NIR-II biowindow.

Keywords: Fe-doped polyoxometalate; NIR-II photothermal therapy; chemodynamic therapy; tumor microenvironments.