Platelet-Mimicking Drug Delivery Nanoparticles for Enhanced Chemo-Photothermal Therapy of Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND: Traditional nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems suffer from several limitations, such as easy clearance from blood and inaccurate targeting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here, we developed platelet membrane-coated nanoparticles (PM-NPs) to improve the precise delivery of drugs to tumor sites and enable a more efficient photothermal therapy (PTT) treatment. RESULTS: Mimicking the natural platelet membrane, nanoparticles containing drugs and photothermal agents were not recognized and cleared by the immune system; they could circulate in the blood for a long time and accumulate more efficiently at the tumor site, thus releasing more antitumor drugs and achieving better PTT effects. It is worth mentioning that, in this study, we found that tumors in mice treated with the platelet-mimicking nanoparticles were completely eliminated without recurrence during the observation period (up to 18 days). CONCLUSION: This study provides a new strategy to design delivery systems of drugs or photothermal agents, whether in biotherapy or other fields.