Complete ablation of resistant tumors with photosensitive black phosphorus quantum dots-based lipid nanocapsules

Treatment of drug-resistant tumors is a great challenge and nanoplatforms combining advanced therapeutic functions have many advantages in offering efficient treatment. However, the reported fabrication of nanoplatforms for multi-modal therapy of tumors is complicated or even uncontrollable since several kinds of therapeutic agents need to be assembled into the nanoparticles. Herein, black phosphorus (BP)-based photosensitive nanocapsules (BP-PNCs) are designed as a highly efficient nanoplatform against resistant tumors by integrating the inherent photothermal and chemotherapeutic effects of BP. BP-PNCs are synthesized by encapsulating BP quantum dots (BPQDs) into the core of liposome and DSPE-PEG2000-cRGD is incorporated into the liposomal bilayers to render BP-PNCs with high cellular uptake and effective in vivo tumor targeting capability after intravenous injection. In vitro and in vivo assessments demonstrate that BP-PNCs in conjunction with near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation lead to complete obliteration of resistant A549R tumors. The excellent anti-cancer efficacy stems from the synergistic therapeutic effects arising from the NIR light induced BP photothermal effects, which result in hyperthermia ablation and triggering the liposome phase transition to release internal BPQDs to perform BP chemotherapeutic effects. The expression inhibition of P-gp by hyperthermia further improves the chemotherapeutic efficiency. BP-PNCs with a simple structure and intrinsic multi-functionalities have great potential in treating resistant tumors and our results provide insights into the design of multifunctional nanoplatforms for biomedicine.