Porous Au@Pt Nanoparticles: Therapeutic Platform for Tumor Chemo-Photothermal Co-Therapy and Alleviating Doxorubicin-Induced Oxidative Damage

Nanoparticle-based systems explore not only the delivery efficacy of drugs or contrast agents, but also additional capabilities like reducing the systemic toxicity, especially during cancer chemotherapy. Since some of the noble metal nanoparticles exhibit the catalysis properties which can scavenge the reactive oxygen species (ROS), they can be used as a promising drug delivery platform for reducing the oxidative stress damage in normal tissues caused by some chemotherapy drugs. Herein, in this study, we construct porous Au@Pt nanoparticles and further explore the properties of porous Au@Pt nanoparticles in relieving the oxidative stress damage as well as in tumor growth inhibition by chemo-photothermal co-therapy. The tunable surface pore structure of Au@Pt nanoparticle provides space for Doxorubicin (DOX) loading. cRGD peptide modification enable the DOX-loaded Au@Pt nanoparticles to improve drug delivery properties. The constructed nanocarrier (DOX/Au@Pt-cRGD) shows controlled drug release behavior. Meanwhile, the absorbance peak of the Au@Pt structure in the near-infrared (NIR) portion provides the capacity for in vivo photoacoustic imaging and the high photoconversion efficiency, which make Au@Pt nanoparticle a suitable carrier for photothermal therapy (PTT). Combined with chemotherapy, the nanosystem DOX/Au@Pt-cRGD shows enhanced anticancer therapeutic effects. More importantly, ROS-scavenging activity of Au@Pt alleviates the DOX-induced oxidative stress damage, especially the cardiomyopathy during chemotherapy. Herein, this nanosystem DOX/Au@Pt-cRGD could be explored as reactive oxygen scavenger and drug delivery system for side effects relieving chemo-photothermal combinational therapy.