Fabrication of cisplatin-loaded polydopamine nanoparticles via supramolecular self-assembly for photoacoustic imaging guided chemo-photothermal cancer therapy

Nanoscale drug delivery system (nDDS) mediated combinatorial therapy shows great promise in cancer treatment to circumvent the drawbacks of conventional monotherapy. In this study, we reported the development of a supramolecular self-assembly strategy to construct multifunctional nDDS. Cisplatin prodrug (Pt-CD) was successfully loaded onto polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA NPs) through the host-guest supramolecular self-assembly between β-cyclodextrins (β-CD) and adamantyl groups. Two cancer therapeutic modalities, photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemotherapy, were integrated into the as-designed nanoplatform (PDA-Pt NPs) to endow combinatorial anticancer capacity. The excellent photothermal performance and redox responsive cisplatin release behavior of PDA-Pt NPs was fully validated. Moreover, PDA-Pt NPs exhibited photoacoustic imaging capacity for real-time in vivo monitoring of the accumulation of the nanodrug in the tumor site and facilitated the imaging-guided PTT at the optimal treatment window. Ultimately, the combinatorial chemo-photothermal therapy mediated by PDA-Pt NPs exhibited very potent anticancer activity against osteosarcoma 143B cells in vitro and complete ablation of the subcutaneous tumor xenograft in vivo. In conclusion, this study represents an innovative and facile supramolecular self-assembly strategy for fabrication of multifunctional nanotheranostics for efficient combined anticancer therapy, which could further inspire the development of other combinatorial nanotherapeutics.