An active-passive strategy for enhanced synergistic photothermal-ferroptosis therapy in the NIR-I/II biowindows

Ferroptosis therapy (FT) is an attractive strategy to selectively damage cancer cells through lipid peroxide (LPO) over-accumulation. However, this therapy suffers from poor therapeutic efficacy due to the limited Fenton reaction efficiency and the evolved intrinsic resistance mechanism in the tumor microenvironment (TME). The exploitation of novel ferroptosis inducers is of significance for improving the efficacy of FT. Here, we develop a plate-like Bi₂Se₃-Fe₃O₄/Au (BFA) theranostic nanoplatform, which can increase the Fenton reaction rate to enhance FT in an active-passive way. In detail, benefiting from the internal synergistic effect of Fe₃O₄ NPs and Au NPs and external NIR-mediated hyperthermia, the BFA NPs can boost hydroxyl radical (˙OH) generation to enhance intracellular oxidative stress and further induce ferroptosis by inactivating glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Furthermore, the BFA NPs show high photothermal conversion efficiency in both the NIR-I and NIR-II windows (66.2% at 808 nm and 58.2% at 1064 nm, respectively); therefore, as a photothermal agent (PTA), they can also ablate cancer cells directly by NIR-triggered photothermal therapy (PTT). Meanwhile, BFA NPs could be used as an efficient diagnostic agent for photoacoustic (PA)/magnetic resonance (MR)/X-ray imaging to guide the synergistic therapy of photothermal-ferroptosis. Therefore, BFA NP-mediated enhanced photothermal-ferroptosis therapy represents a promising strategy for the application of nanomaterials in tumor therapy.