NIR II Laser-Triggered Photothermal Nanoplatform for Multimodal Imaging-Guided Synergistic Therapy toward Colon Cancer

Colon cancer is one kind of malignant digestive tract tumor with high morbidity and mortality worldwide, treatments for which still face great challenges. Recently emerged intervention strategies such as phototherapy and gas therapy have displayed promising effects in the treatment of colon cancer, but their application are still hindered due to insufficient tumor targeting and deeper tissue penetrating capacity. Herein, in the present study, we developed one theranostic nanoplatform Cet-CDs-SNO (CCS) to realize multimodal imaging-guided synergistic colon cancer therapy. Among the CCS, Cetuximab (Cet), one first-line clinical drugs for colorectal cancer, endowed CCS with tumor-targeting capacity and enhanced drug accumulation in tumor cells; CDs doped by Ni²⁺ and Mn²⁺ served as NIR-II photothermal therapy (PTT), chemodynamic therapy (CDT), and photothermal/magnetic resonance/fluorescence imaging (PTI/MRI/FLI) agents; SNO, a nitric oxide (NO) donor, exerted gas therapeutic (GT) effects under thermal stimulation derived from PTT. In vitro and in vivo experiments proved that CCS had excellent colon cancer-targeting ability. Proliferation of colon cancer cells and tumor growth were significantly inhibited by the administration of CCS without detectable cytotoxicity. This study presented one strategy for developing a multifunctional nanoplatform to be applied in imaging-guided precise tumor therapy.