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Updated: Oct 21, 2025
Photodynamic Therapy with Blended Conducting Polymer/Fullerene Nanoparticle Photosensitizers
Published on: October 28, 2015
Metabolizable pH/H2O2 dual-responsive conductive polymer nanoparticles for safe and precise chemo-photothermal
Xin Liu1, Yang Liu2, Yijun Guo2
1Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Fujian Province University/Research Center of Biomedical Engineering of Xiamen, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Fire Retardant Materials/Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Fire Retardant Materials, Department of Biomaterials, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China; Department of Pharmacy, Shunde Hospital, Southern Medical University (The First People's Hospital of Shunde, Foshan), Foshan, 528300, PR China.
Abstract:
Conductive polymers with high near-infrared absorbance, have attracted considerable attention in the design of intelligent nanomedicines for cancer therapy, especially chemo-photothermal therapy. However, the unknown long-term biosafety of conductive polymers in vivo due to non-degradability hinders their clinic application. Herein, a H2O2-triggered degradable conductive polymer, polyacrylic acid (PAA) stabilized poly(pyrrole-3-COOH) (PAA@PPyCOOH), is fabricated to form nanoparticles with doxorubicin (DOX) for safe and precise chemo-phototherapy. The PAA@PPyCOOH was found to be an ideal photothermal nano-agent with good dispersity, excellent biocompatibility and high photothermal conversion efficiency (56%). After further loading of doxorubicin (DOX), PAA@PPyCOOH@DOX demonstrates outstanding photothermal performance, as well as pH/H2O2 dual-responsive release of DOX in tumors with an acidic and overexpressed H2O2 microenvironment, resulting in superior chemo-photothermal therapeutic effects. The degradation mechanism of PAA@PPyCOOH is proposed to be the ring-opening reaction between the pyrrole-3-COOH unit and H2O2. More importantly, the nanoparticles can be specifically degraded by excess H2O2 in tumor, and the degradation products were confirmed to be excreted via urine and feces. In vivo therapeutic evaluation of chemo-photothermal therapy reveals tumor growth of 4T1 breast cancer model is drastically inhibited and no apparent side-effect is detected, thus indicating substantial potential in clinic application.
