Insufficient accumulation of drug at the tumor site and the low drug response are the main reason for the unsatisfactory effect of cancer therapy. Delivery drugs exquisitely to subcellular level can be employed to reduce side effects, and expand the therapeutic window. Herein, a triphenylphosphine (TPP) modified lipid nanoparticles is designed which are loaded with the photosensitizer indocyanine green (ICG) and chemotherapeutic paclitaxel (PTX) for mitochondria-targeted chemo-phototherapy. Owing to the movement of majority mitochondria along microtubules in cytoplasm, mitochondrial targeting may enable PTX to act more effectively. Meanwhile, the existence of chemo-drug potentiates the phototherapy to achieve synergistic anti-tumor activity. As expected, mitochondria targeting nanomedicine (M-ICG-PTX NPs) showed improved mitochondria targeted cellular distribution and enhanced cell cytotoxicity in vitro. Also, M-ICG-PTX NPs exhibited higher tumor growth inhibition ability by promoting cell apoptosis and oxeiptosis pathway, and high effective inhibition of primary tumor growth and tumor metastasis. Taken together, M-ICG-PTX NPs may be promising nanoplatforms to achieve potent therapeutic effect for the combination of chemo- and photo-therapy (PTT).
Keywords: ICG; cancer metastasis; indocyanine green; oxeiptosis; photo-chemotherapy; sub-cellular targeting.
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