Nanococktail Based on Supramolecular Glyco-Assembly for Eradicating Tumors In Vivo

The development of robust phototherapeutic strategies for eradicating tumors remains a significant challenge in the transfer of cancer phototherapy to clinical practice. Here, a phototherapeutic nanococktail atovaquone/17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin/glyco-BODIPY (ADB) was developed to enhance photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) via alleviation of hypoxia and thermal resistance that was constructed using supramolecular self-assembly of glyco-BODIPY (BODIPY-SS-LAC, BSL-1), hypoxia reliever atovaquone (ATO), and heat shock protein inhibitor 17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-DMAG). Benefiting from a glyco-targeting and glutathione (GSH) responsive units BSL-1, ADB can be rapidly taken up by hepatoma cells, furthermore the loaded ATO and 17-DMAG can be released in original form into the cytoplasm. Using in vitro and in vivo results, it was confirmed that ADB enhanced the synergetic PDT and PTT upon irradiation using 685 nm near-infrared light (NIR) under a hypoxic tumor microenvironment where ATO can reduce O₂ consumption and 17-DMAG can down-regulate HSP90. Moreover, ADB exhibited good biosafety, and tumor eradication in vivo. Hence, this as-developed phototherapeutic nanococktail overcomes the substantial obstacles encountered by phototherapy in tumor treatment and offers a promising approach for the eradication of tumors.