Single Atom-Doped Nanosonosensitizers for Mutually Optimized Sono/Chemo-Nanodynamic Therapy of Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) represents a promising therapeutic modality for treating breast cancer, which relies on the generation of abundant reactive oxygen species (ROS) to induce oxidative stress damage. However, mutant breast cancers, especially triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), have evolved to acquire specific antioxidant defense functions, significantly limiting the killing efficiency of SDT. Herein, the authors have engineered a distinct single copper atom-doped titanium dioxide (Cu/TiO2 ) nanosonosensitizer with highly catalytic and sonosensitive activities for synergistic chemodynamic and sonodynamic treatment of TNBC. The single-atom Cu is anchored on the most stable Ti vacancies of hollow TiO2 sonosensitizers, which not only substantially improved the catalytic activity of Cu-mediated Fenton-like reaction, but also considerably augmented the sonodynamic efficiency of TiO2 by facilitating the separation of electrons (e- ) and holes (h+ ). Both the in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that the engineered single atom-doped nanosonosensitizers effectively achieved the significantly inhibitory effect of TNBC, providing a therapeutic paradigm for non-invasive and safe tumor elimination through the mutual process of sono/chemo-nanodynamic therapy based on multifunctional single-atom nanosonosensitizers.

Theranostics of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Based on Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) does not respond to many targeted drugs due to the lack of three receptors (i.e., estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2), which makes it difficult for TNBC detection and treatment. As compared to traditional breast cancer treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has emerged as a promising approach for treating TNBC due to its precise controllability, high spatiotemporal accuracy, and minimal invasive nature. However, traditional photosensitizers used in PDT are associated with limitations of aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), and the ACQ induced a significant decrease in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. To address these, we synthesized a cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (cRGD) peptide-decorated conjugated polymer (CP) nanoparticles with poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) as the photosensitizer for the theranostics of TNBC. The synthesized CP nanoparticles show bright fluorescence with high stability and could effectively produce ROS under light irradiation. Cell viability studies showed that the CP nanoparticles have negligible dark cytotoxicity and could efficiently kill the α_vβ₃ integrin-overexpressed MDA-MB-231 cells (one subtype of TNBC cells) in a selective way. With the use of cRGD-modified MEH-PPV nanoparticles as the theranostic agent, it permits targeted imaging and PDT of TNBC both in the in vitro 3D tumor model and in living mice. The application of CP nanoparticles in the successful theranostics of TNBC could pave the way for future development of CP-based photosensitizers for clinical applications.