Fabrication of doxorubicin-gated mesoporous polydopamine nanoplatforms for multimode imaging-guided synergistic chemophotothermal therapy of tumors

A versatile theranostic agent that integrated with therapeutic and diagnostic functions is extremely essential for cancer theranostic. Herein, a multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform (PFP@MPDA-DOX) based on perfluoropentane (PFP) encapsulated mesoporous polydopamine (MPDA) is elaborately designed, followed by gating of drug doxorubicin (DOX) for preventing cargo leaking. The MPDA with pH-responsive biodegradation behavior was served as nanocarrier, which also endows the nanoplatform with a large cavity for PFP filling. The nanoparticles were then gated with DOX molecule by Michael addition and/or Schiff base reaction to shield the leaking of PFP during the blood circulation before the tumor tissue is reached. Also, such nanotheranostic exhibits high photothermal conversion efficiency of 45.6%, which can act as an intelligent nanosystem for photothermal therapy (PTT) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging. Moreover, the liquid-gas phase transition of PFP arising upon exposure to an 808 nm laser and thus produced the bubbles for ultrasound (US) imaging. The subsequent PFP@MPDA-DOX-mediated synergetic chemotherapy (contributed by the DOX gatekeeper) and PTT (contributed by the MPDA) shows excellent anticancer activity, which has been systematically evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. All these positive results certify that the facile incorporation of the antitumor drug gatekeeper and MPDA into one theranostic nanoplatform shows general potential for multimode PA/US imaging and combination chemotherapy/PTT of tumors.