Cancer Cell Membrane-Coated Nanoparticles for Treatment of Oral Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Combining Photothermal/Photodynamic Therapy and Autophagy Inhibition

Photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) have been considered as attractive therapeutic treatments for oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) due to their low toxicity, negligible drug resistance, and minimally invasive properties. Meanwhile, these two treatments can also induce autophagy, which plays an important role in maintaining cellular metabolism and homeostasis through resisting the thermal effect and oxidative stress of PTT and PDT, thus to a certain extent weakening the antitumor efficacy of these two treatments. To improve the antitumor efficiency of PTT/PDT, in this study, we designed a biomimetic nanoparticle treatment system for coloading the photosensitizer and photothermal agent ICG and the autophagy inhibitor hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE)/polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) were regarded as the drugs’ carrier materials, and cancer cell membrane (CCM) vesicles extracted from OTSCC further encapsulated the PBAE/PLGA nanocomplex, thus helping to target the delivery of ICG and HCQ to homologous OTSCC cells through efficient self-recognition and cellular uptake. Upon near-infrared laser irradiation, the nanoparticles exhibited significant antitumor efficacy in vitro and in vivo. Accordingly, this study provided a biomimetic nanoparticle that possessed a notable homologous cancer cell drug-delivery ability and significantly amplified PTT/PDT’s effects against OTSCC through autophagy inhibition, which is promising to provide new strategies for the clinical treatment of OTSCC.