Multifunctional Protein-Decorated Bioactive Glass Nanoparticles for Tumor-Specific Therapy and Bioimaging In Vitro and In Vivo

Multifunctional nanocarriers with a simple structure and biocompatibility for bioimaging, potential tumor targeting, and precise antitumor ability are promising in cancer therapy. Bioactive glass is an important biomaterial and has been used in clinical bone tissue repair due to the high biocompatibility and bioactivity. Herein, we report fetal bovine serum (FBS)-decorated europium-doped bioactive glass nanoparticles (EuBGN@FBS) with excellent biosafety and enhanced tumor targeting for cancer imaging and therapy. EuBGN@FBS showed the controlled photoluminescent properties and pH-responsive anticancer drug release behavior. The FBS decoration significantly enhanced the dispersibility in physiological medium and improved hemocompatibility and cellular uptake of EuBGN. Relative to EuBGN, EuBGN@FBS could also efficiently image the cancer cell and show significantly enhanced targeted tumor imaging and chemotherapy in vivo while retaining negligible side effects. The simple and biocompatible structure with efficient tumor targeting, imaging, and therapy makes EuBGN@FBS highly promising in future cancer therapy.