Tailor-Made Polymer Nano-Assembly with Switchable Function and Amplified Anti-Tumor Therapy.

The difficulty in killing tumor cells due to the tendency to metastasis and drug resistance are outstanding and urgent problems for the treatment of cancer. It is imperative to figure out an effective therapy strategy to break the treatment dilemmas. Nano self-assembly has the characteristics of flexible regulation, biological compatibility, and easy access. Herein, an albumin-polymer nano-assembly with switchable cytotoxicity and reactive oxygen species (ROS) amplification capability is developed for anti-tumor therapy. The nano-assembly (PFFBT@HSA) is comprised of conjugated polymer PFFBT and natural protein human serum albumin (HSA) via the hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. The innovative switchable strategy is proposed and realized by HSA turning off the cytotoxicity of PFFBT and then turning on and enhancing the cytotoxicity by generating massive ROS upon light irradiation. The combination of HSA provides more stable microenvironment to benefit the generation of highly effective anti-tumor model of "0+1>1". These results display that the nanostructured self-assembly and the proposed anti-tumor regulation strategy are effective, which will contribute to the diversified treatment of cancer.