A multifunctional theranostics nanosystem featuring self-assembly of alcohol-abuse drug and photosensitizers for synergistic cancer therapy

Conventional treatments for cancer, such as chemotherapy, surgical resection, and radiotherapy, have shown limited therapeutic efficacy, with severe side effects, lack of targeting and drug resistance for monotherapies, which limit their clinical application. Therefore, combinatorial strategies have been widely investigated in the battle against cancer. Herein, we fabricated a dual-targeted nanoscale drug delivery system based on EpCAM aptamer- and lactic acid-modified low-polyamidoamine dendrimers to co-deliver the FDA-approved agent disulfiram and photosensitizer indocyanine green, combining the imaging and therapeutic functions in a single platform. The multifunctional nanoparticles with uniform size had high drug-loading payload, sustained release, as well as excellent photothermal conversion. The integrated nanoplatform showed a superior synergistic effect in vitro and possessed precise spatial delivery to HepG2 cells with the dual-targeting nanocarrier. Intriguingly, a robust anticancer response of chemo-phototherapy was achieved; chemotherapy combined with the efficacy of phototherapy to cause cellular apoptosis of HepG2 cells (>35%) and inhibit the regrowth of damaged cells. Furthermore, the theranostic nanosystem displayed fluorescence imaging in vivo, attributed to its splendid accumulation in the tumor site, and it provided exceptional tumor inhibition rate against liver cancer cells (>76%). Overall, our research presents a promising multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform for the development of synergistic therapeutics for tumors in further applications.