Nano-assemblies of J-aggregates based on a NIR dye as a multifunctional drug carrier for combination cancer therapy

Xuejiao Song, Rui Zhang, Chao Liang, Qian Chen, Hua Gong, Zhuang Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

96 Scopus citations

Abstract

The combination of chemotherapy with photothermal therapy, which may lead to improved therapeutic efficacies and reduced side effects of conventional chemotherapy, would require safe drug delivery systems (DDSs) with strong near-infrared (NIR) absorbance, efficient drug loading, and effective tumor homing ability. Herein, we fabricate nano-assemblies containing J-aggregates of a NIR dye, IR825, for drug delivery and combined photothermal & chemotherapy of cancer. It is found that IR825 could be complexed with a low-molecular-weight cationic polymer polyethylenimine (PEI), forming IR825@PEI J-aggregates with greatly enhanced NIR absorbance red-shifted to 915nm. Those nano-assemblies of J-aggregates are further modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG), obtaining IR825@PEI-PEG nano-complex which exhibits great dispersity in physiological solutions, excellent photostability, and is able to efficiently load chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) via a unique strategy different from drug loading in conventional amphiphilic polymer-based DDSs. Invivo animal experiments uncover that IR825@PEI-PEG/DOX upon intravenous injection into tumor-bearing mice shows rather high tumor uptake as illustrated by photoacoustic imaging. Invivo combined photothermal & chemotherapy is then carried out, demonstrating great synergistic anti-tumor therapeutic effect remarkably superior to those achieved by the respective mono-therapies. Hence, we present a novel type of nanoscale DDSs based on nano-assemblies of small molecules without involving amphiphilic polymers, promising for imaging-guided combination cancer therapy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)84-92
Number of pages9
JournalBiomaterials
Volume57
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Combination therapy
  • Drug delivery systems
  • J-aggregates
  • Organic NIR dye
  • Photothermal therapy

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