Tumor-Microenvironment-Responsive Biodegradable Nanoagents Based on Lanthanide Nucleotide Self-Assemblies toward Precise Cancer Therapy.

Stimuli-responsive nanoagents, which simultaneously satisfy normal tissue clearance and tumor-specific responsive treatment, are highly attractive for precise cancer theranostics. Herein, we develop a unique template-induced self-assembly strategy for the exquisitely controlled synthesis of self-assembled lanthanide (Ln 3+ ) nucleotide nanoparticles (LNNPs) with amorphous structure and tunable size from sub-5 nm to 105 nm. By virtue of the low-temperature (10 K) and high-resolution spectroscopy, the local site symmetry of Ln 3+ in LNNPs is unraveled for the first time. The proposed LNNPs are further demonstrated to possess the ability for highly efficient loading and tumor-microenvironment-responsive release of doxorubicin. Particularly, sub-5 nm LNNPs not only exhibit excellent biocompatibility and predominant renal-clearance performance, but also enable efficient tumor retention. These findings reveal the great potential of LNNPs as a new generation of therapeutic platform to overcome the dilemma between efficient therapy and long-term toxicity of nanoagents for future clinical applications.