Gold–Silica Janus Nanoparticles for Multimodal Therapy against Tumors in Vitro

Abstract To achieve maximum curative effects and minimize side effects in tumor therapies, combining multimodal therapies into a single nanoplatform offers significant potential to overcome the limitations of conventional single‐modal treatments. In this study, gold–silica Janus particles (Au‐HMSN JNPs) were synthesized using the Pickering emulsion method. One hemisphere of hollow mesoporous silicon dioxide (HMSN) was functionalized with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs), while the other was loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) and methylene blue (MB). This nanosystem was designed for multimodal therapy, integrating chemotherapy, photothermal, and photodynamic approaches for tumor treatment. The experimental results demonstrated that HMSN effectively served as a delivery carrier for DOX and MB, achieving drug loadings of 30.2 µg/mg and 93.0 µg/mg, respectively. Further, laser irradiation exhibited strong photodynamic and photothermal effects from both MB and Au NPs. In vitro experiments confirmed the biocompatibility of Au‐HMSN JNPs, and DOX‐loaded nanocarriers significantly inhibited tumor cell growth. Compared to DOX‐loaded nanocarriers alone, tumor cell proliferation was significantly reduced after laser irradiation, owing to synergistic photothermal and photodynamic effects, with cell viability decreasing from 47.46% to 16.45%. This study presents an efficient strategy for designing multifunctional nanoparticles to enable synergistic multimodal antitumor therapy.