Engineering Nanomedicine with Oxidative Stress Amplification and Antioxidant Defense Disruption for Enhanced Cancer Treatment

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) faces limitations due to tumor hypoxia and antioxidant defenses. Herein, a modular drug delivery system (P@Ce6/PTX) that integrates photosensitizer (Ce6), metal ion (Cu²⁺), and hypoxia-activated paclitaxel prodrugs (PTX-MTZ) was developed by a one-step coassembly strategy to amplify oxidative stress-induced ferroptosis while enabling hypoxia-triggered chemotherapy. The Cu²⁺-imidazole coordination not only stabilizes the nanostructure but also facilitates controllable size modulation by varying the polymer-to-metal ratio. Upon laser irradiation, Ce6 generates cytotoxic ROS to induce DNA damage while exacerbating hypoxia, which triggers PTX-MTZ reduction and PTX/MTZ release. MTZ consumes NADPH or GSH to sensitize PDT via inhibiting DNA repair and aggravates the antioxidant system. The reported multimodulating nanomedicine exhibits spatiotemporal controllable PDT, Cu²⁺-amplified ferroptosis through lipid peroxidation, and hypoxia-activated chemotherapy, achieving 92.3% tumor regression rate with minimal off-target toxicity.