Transmissible H-aggregated NIR-II fluorophore to the tumor cell membrane for enhanced PTT and synergistic therapy of cancer

Photothermal therapy (PTT) combined with second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorescence imaging (FI) has received increasing attention owing to its capacity for precise diagnosis and real-time monitoring of the therapeutic effects. It is of great clinical value to study organic small molecular fluorophores with both PTT and NIR-II FI functions. In this work, we report a skillfully fluorescent lipid nanosystem, the RR(9) (RGDRRRRRRRRRC) peptide-coated anionic liposome loaded with organic NIR-II fluorophore IR-1061 and chemotherapeutic drug carboplatin, which is named RRIALP-C4. According to the structural interaction between IR-1061 and phospholipid bilayer demonstrated by molecular dynamics simulations, IR-1061 is rationally designed to possess the H-aggregated state versus the free state, thus rendering RRIALP-C4 with the activated dual-channel integrated function of intravital NIR-II FI and NIR-I PTT. Functionalization of RRIALP-C4 with RR(9) peptide endows the specifically targeting capacity for α(v)β(3)-overexpressed tumor cells and, more importantly, allows IR-1061 to transfer the H-aggregated state from liposomes to the tumor cell membrane through enhanced membrane fusion, thereby maintaining its PTT effect in tumor tissues. In vivo experiments demonstrate that RRIALP-C4 can effectively visualize tumor tissues and systemic blood vessels with a high sign-to-background ratio (SBR) to realize the synergistic treatment of thermochemotherapy by PTT synergistically with temperature-sensitive drug release. Therefore, the strategy of enhanced PTT through H-aggregation of NIR-II fluorophore in the tumor cell membrane has great potential for developing lipid nanosystems with integrated diagnosis and treatment function. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40580-022-00352-4.