Injectable hydrogel-mediated combination of hyperthermia ablation and photo-enhanced chemotherapy in the NIR-II window for tumor eradication

• Published in: Biomaterials science Vol. 9; no. 9; pp. 3516 - 3525
• Main Authors: Wang, Gang, Zhang, Na, Cao, Ziyang, Zhang, Zhenghai, Zhu, Zhongming, Sun, Gengyun, Jin, Liangjie, Yang, Xianzhu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 04.05.2021
• Subjects: Ablation; Alginates; Animals; Biocompatibility; Calcium ions; Cell Line, Tumor; Chemical compounds; Chemotherapy; Doxorubicin; Gold; Hydrogels; Hyperthermia; Hyperthermia, Induced; Mice; Nanorods; Near infrared radiation; Neoplasms - therapy; Organs; Pharmacology; Silver; Tumors
• ISSN: 2047-4830; 2047-4849
• DOI: 10.1039/d1bm00371b

Local administration of therapeutic agents with long-term retention capabilities efficiently avoids nonspecific distribution in normal organs with an increased drug concentration in pathological tissue. Herein, we developed an injectable and degradable alginate-calcium (Ca 2+ ) hydrogel for the local administration of corn-like Au/Ag nanorods (NRs) and doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX·HCl). The immobilized Au/Ag NRs with strong absorbance in the near-infrared II (NIR-II) window efficiently ablated the majority of tumor cells after 1064 nm laser irradiation and triggered the release of DOX to kill residual tumor cells. As a result, injectable hydrogel-mediated NIR-II photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemotherapy efficiently inhibited tumor growth, resulting in the complete eradication of tumors in most of the treated mice. Furthermore, owing to the confinement of the Au/Ag NRs and DOX·HCl within the hydrogel, such treatment exhibited excellent biocompatibility. An injectable alginate hydrogel was developed for local delivery of corn-like Au/Ag NRs and DOX for combined NIR-II PTT and chemotherapy.