Targeting ligand-functionalized photothermal scaffolds for cancer cell capture and in situ ablation

Scaffolds have been explored as a useful carrier to deliver efficient photothermal conversion agents for localized photothermal therapy applications because they can confine the agents in designated regions. However, cell capture by porous structures cannot discriminate between cancer cells and normal cells. In this study, folic acid (FA) as a typical targeting ligand for cancer cells was introduced into the porous photothermal scaffolds. Poly-l-lysine was mixed with gelatin to increase the amino side groups for FA incorporation. By changing the poly-l-lysine amount, the number of free amino groups in the scaffolds could be controlled. After the reaction with activated FA, composite scaffolds incorporated with different amounts of FA were prepared. Cell culture results showed that the FA-functionalized photothermal scaffolds could efficiently capture folate-positive cervical cancer cells compared with gelatin scaffolds. The capture efficiency increased with the increase in the amount of FA in the scaffolds. Furthermore, cancer cells in the FA-functionalized photothermal scaffolds can be efficiently killed during near-infrared laser irradiation. The results indicated that the FA-functionalized photothermal scaffolds had good cancer cell capture ability and excellent cancer cell ablation efficacy, which may provide useful information for the design of multifunctional scaffolds with cancer cell capture capacity and photothermal ablation ability.