Liposome-Stabilized Black Phosphorus for Photothermal Drug Delivery and Oxygen Self-Enriched Photodynamic Therapy

Abstract

Black phosphorus (BP) has attracted increasing attention for cancer therapy because of its good biocompatibility and biodegradability and high photothermal conversion efficiency. Here, we developed a photothermally maneuvered all-in-one nanoplatform based on liposome-stabilized BP for the triggered drug delivery and oxygen (O2)-self-generated photodynamic multiple therapy of cancer. In this work, the multifunctional liposome (MFL) with the targeting ligands and imaging units was prepared and then assembled onto the surface of BP to form the sandwich-structured BP@MFL nanoplatform, which may efficiently improve the stability of BP in the aqueous solution. In order to achieve chemotherapy and in situ self-generation of O2, both resveratrol (RV) as an anticancer drug and catalase (CAT) as a O2-evolving agent were loaded on the BP surface before the treatment with the MFL. The obtained all-in-one nanoplatform (RV/CAT-BP@MFL) can recognize and selectively enter into cancer cells by the targeting ligands (folate) and then release the loaded RV and CAT under the near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation due to the photothermal conversion effect of BP, which can be also applied for the photothermal therapy of cancer. The released RV can realize the chemotherapy of cancer. Moreover, free CAT may catalyze the decomposition of endogenous hydrogen peroxide high-expressed in tumor sites into O2, which can relieve tumor hypoxia and enhance the photodynamic treatment efficiency of BP. In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that the all-in-one nanoplatform achieved the photothermally maneuvered drug delivery and synergistically O2-self-enriched photodynamic multiple therapy and thus enhanced dramatically the suppression of tumor growth. We believe that the all-in-one theranostic nanoplatform possesses substantial potential for clinical translation.