A Phase-Change Mediated Intelligent Nanoplatform for Chemo/Photothermal/Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer.

Up to now, chemotherapy is still the main strategy for cancer treatment. However, the emergence of chemo-resistance and systemic side effects often seriously affects the treatment and prognosis. Herein, an intelligent nanoplatform based on dendritic mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (DMON) was constructed. The encapsulated phase-change material, 1-tetradecanol (TD) could serve as a "doorkeeper" and enable the responsive release of drugs based on the temperature changes. Meanwhile, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was employed to improve the dispersibility and biocompatibility. Cisplatin was chosen as the model of chemotherapy drug, which was co-loaded with indocyanine green (ICG) in DMON to produce DMON-PEG-cisplatin/ICG-TD (DPCIT). Exciting, the hyperthermia and reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by ICG under the NIR-laser irradiation would initiate a phase transition of TD to release cisplatin, thus leading a combined therapy (chemo/photothermal/photodynamic therapy). The results indicated that under laser irradiation, DPCIT could kill cancer cells and inhibit tumor growth efficiently. In addition, the designed nanoplatform revealed minimal systemic toxicity in vivo, in contrast, the distinct liver damage could be observed by the direct treatment of cisplatin. Overall, this research may provide a general approach for the targeted delivery and controlled release of chemotherapy drugs to realize a cooperatively enhanced multimodal tumor therapy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.