Multimodal Cancer Theranosis Using Hyaluronate‐Conjugated Molybdenum Disulfide

Hyaluronate‐conjugated molybdenum disulfide (HA‐MoS₂ conjugate) appears to show a great promising potential for targeted cancer theranosis. The HA‐MoS₂ conjugate can be successfully used for photoacoustic imaging and fluorescence imaging. In addition, upon NIR light illumination, HA‐MoS₂ conjugate enables highly effective target‐specific photothermal cancer therapy.

Abstract

Among various 2D nanomaterials, molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) exhibits unique visible photoluminescence with high absorption at the near‐infrared (NIR) range. Despite these optical properties, the efforts to use MoS₂ nanomaterials for optical imaging and photothermal therapy are hampered by their instability and low intracellular delivery efficiency. Multifunctional MoS₂ conjugated with hyaluronate (HA) for cancer theranosis is reported herein. HA facilitates the delivery of MoS₂ to tumor cells by the HA‐receptor mediated endocytosis. In BALB/c nude mice inoculated with a colorectal cancer cell line of HCT116, HA‐MoS₂ conjugates appear to be accumulated in the primary tumor at a content more than that in the liver and kidney. The disulfide bonding between MoS₂ and thiolated HA seems to degrade in the cytoplasm, releasing MoS₂ sheets in stacks and enhancing luminescence efficiency. The HA‐MoS₂ conjugates are readily detected via photoacoustic imaging as well as upconversion and downconversion fluorescence imaging. With NIR light illumination, HA‐MoS₂ conjugates enable highly effective photothermal tumor ablation. All these results confirm the promising potential of HA‐MoS₂ conjugates for cancer theranosis.

https://ift.tt/2FF9VsS