Injectable thermosensitive black phosphorus nanosheet- and doxorubicin-loaded hydrogel for synergistic bone tumor photothermal-chemotherapy and osteogenesis enhancement

Removing residual tumor cells around bone tissue and promoting bone defect repair pose significant challenges after osteosarcoma resection. Herein, we designed an injectable multifunctional hydrogel therapeutic platform for synergistic photothermal chemotherapy of tumors and promoting osteogenesis. In this study, the black phosphorus nanosheets (BPNS) and doxorubicin (DOX) were encapsulated in an injectable chitosan-based hydrogel (BP/DOX/CS). The BP/DOX/CS hydrogel exhibited excellent photothermal effects under NIR irradiation due to incorporating BPNS. The prepared hydrogel has good drug-loading capacity and can continuously release DOX. In addition, K7M2-WT tumor cells are effectively eliminated under the combined effect of chemotherapy and photothermal stimulation. Furthermore, the BP/DOX/CS hydrogel has good biocompatibility and promotes osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells by releasing phosphate. In vivo results also confirmed that the BP/DOX/CS hydrogel can be injected at the tumor site to eliminate the tumor efficiently without systemic toxicity. This easily prepared multifunctional hydrogel with a synergistic photothermal-chemotherapy effect has excellent potential for clinically treating bone-related tumors.