Multistimuli-Responsive Polymeric Vesicles For Accelerated Drug Release In Chemo-Photothermal Therapy

Multistimuli-responsive nanomedicines present great potential for cancer therapy, as they can be featured as simple, selective, and smart carriers that can release their payload on-demand. In this study, we prepared a multifunctional polymeric vesicular nanocarrier (PVN) based on robust and triple stimuli-responsive micelles that could encapsulate chemotherapeutic drugs (doxorubicin (DOX)) and photothermal agents (IR780 iodide) for combined chemophotothermal therapy. The size of the PVNs was stable and uniform (similar to 100 nm), and its DOX and IR780 loading were high: 26.5 and 16.4 wt %, respectively. Further in vitro investigations suggested that the DOX/IR780 coloaded PVNs presented controlled drug release kinetics upon costimulation with specific endogenous stimuli. Upon laser irradiation, DOX/IR780 coloaded PVNs exhibited prominent photothermal cytotoxicity toward murine colon cancer (CT-26) cells. Intracellular uptake assays indicated that DOX/IR780 coloaded PVNs could be readily uptaken by CT-26 cells, resulting in the release of DOX within the cytoplasm of the cells in response to laser irradiation.