Enhanced Phototherapy by Nanoparticle-Enzyme via Generation and Photolysis of Hydrogen Peroxide

Light has been widely used for cancer therapeutics such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy. This paper describes a strategy called enzyme-enhanced phototherapy (EEPT) for cancer treatment. We constructed a nanoparticle platform by covalent conjugation of glucose oxidase (GOx) to small polymer dots, which could be persistently immobilized into a tumor. While the malignant tumors have high glucose uptake, the GOx efficiently catalyzes the glucose oxidation with simultaneous generation of H₂O₂. Under light irradiation, the in situ generated H₂O₂ was photolyzed to produce hydroxyl radical, the most reactive oxygen species, for killing cancer cells. In vitro assays indicated that the cancer cells were destroyed by using a nanoparticle concentration at 0.2 μg/mL and a light dose of ∼120 J/cm², indicating the significantly enhanced efficiency of the EEPT method when compared to typical PDT that requires a photosensitizer of >10 μg/mL for effective cell killing under the same light dose. Furthermore, remarkable inhibition of tumor growth was observed in xenograft-bearing mice, indicating the promise of the EEPT approach for cancer therapeutics.