Nanoarchitectonics of versatile platform based on graphene oxide for precise and enhanced synergistic cancer photothermal-photodynamic/chemotherapy

The synergy therapy possesses ultrahigh curative effect in the anti-cancer treatment. In this work, nanoscale graphene oxide (NGO) was prepared, loaded with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and thiol polyethylene glycol folic acid (SH-PEG1000-FA), and further modified with the photosensitizer methylene blue (MB) or the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) to obtain multifunctional nanoplatforms for photothermal-photodynamic synergy (NGO-AuNPs-FA/MB) or photothermal-chemotherapy synergy (NGO-AuNPs-FA/5-Fu), respectively. The results show that NGO-AuNPs-FA has a high drug loading rate and good biocompatibility, and the multifunctional nanoplatform exhibits excellent photodynamic and photothermal properties under laser irradiation. The cell viabilities of NGO-AuNPs-FA/MB and NGO-AuNPs-FA/5-Fu significantly decreased under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation, showing excellent in vitro antitumor effects. Therefore, NGO-AuNPs-FA/MB and NGO-AuNPs-FA/5-Fu nanoplatforms achieve synergistic photothermal-photodynamic and photothermal-chemotherapy treatments, respectively, which have promising application prospects in anti-cancer treatment.