An Intelligent and Soluble Microneedle Composed of Bi/BiVO₄ Schottky Heterojunction for Tumor Ct Imaging and...

Phototherapy and sonodynamic therapy (SDT) are widely used for the synergistic treatment of tumors and have received considerable attention. However, an inappropriate tumor microenvironment, including pH, H₂O₂, oxygen, and glutathione levels, can reduce the therapeutic effects of synergistic phototherapy and SDT. Here, a novel Bi-based soluble microneedle (MN) is designed for the CT imaging of breast tumors and starvation therapy/gas therapy-enhanced phototherapy/SDT. The optimized Bi/BiVO₄ Schottky heterojunction serves as the tip of the MN, which not only has excellent photothermal conversion ability and CT contrast properties, but its heterojunction can also avoid the rapid combination of electrons and hole pairs, thereby enhancing the photodynamic/sonodynamic effects. A degradable MN with excellent mechanical properties is fabricated by optimizing the ratios of poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), and sodium hyaluronate. Glucose oxidase (GO_x) and diallyl trisulfide are loaded into the MN to achieve tumor starvation and gas therapy, respectively; And the controlled release of GO_x and H₂S can be achieved under ultrasound or near-infrared laser irradiation. The in vitro and in vivo results demonstrate that this multifunctional MN can achieve high therapeutic efficacy through starvation therapy/gas therapy-enhanced phototherapy/SDT. The designed multifunctional MN provides a prospective approach for synergistic phototherapy and SDT.