"Smart" nickel oxide based core–shell nanoparticles for combined chemo and photodynamic cancer therapy

Abstract: We report "smart" nickel oxide nanoparticles (NOPs) as multimodal cancer therapy agent. Water-dispersible and light-sensitive NiO core was synthesized with folic acid (FA) connected bovine serum albumin (BSA) shell on entrapped doxorubicin (DOX). The entrapped drug from [email protected] was released in a sustained way (64 hours, pH=5.5, dark conditions) while a robust release was found under red light exposure (in 1/2 hour under λ max =655 nm, 50 mW/cm 2 , at pH=5.5). The cell viability, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and diphenylisobenzofuran assays conducted under light and dark conditions revealed a high photodynamic therapy potential of our construct. Furthermore, we found that the combined effect of DOX and NOPs from [email protected] resulted in cell death approximately eightfold high compared to free DOX. We propose that [email protected] is a potential photodynamic therapy agent and a collective drug delivery system for the systemic administration of cancer chemotherapeutics resulting in combination therapy. Keywords: light-triggered drug release, cancer, bovine serum albumin, multi-model therapy