An active-passive strategy for enhanced synergistic photothermal-ferroptosis therapy in the NIR-I/II biowindows

NPs and Au NPs and external NIR-mediated hyperthermia, the BFA NPs can boost hydroxyl radical (˙OH) generation to enhance intracellular oxidative stress and further induce ferroptosis by inactivating glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Furthermore, the BFA NPs show high photothermal conversion efficiency in both the NIR-I and NIR-II windows (66.2% at 808 nm and 58.2% at 1064 nm, respectively); therefore, as a photothermal agent (PTA), they can also ablate cancer cells directly by NIR-triggered photothermal therapy (PTT). Meanwhile, BFA NPs could be used as an efficient diagnostic agent for photoacoustic (PA)/magnetic resonance (MR)/X-ray imaging to guide the synergistic therapy of photothermal-ferroptosis. Therefore, BFA NP-mediated enhanced photothermal-ferroptosis therapy represents a promising strategy for the application of nanomaterials in tumor therapy.