Engineering sialic acid-coated mesoporous polydopamine nanomaterials for MRI-guided photothermal-enhanced synergistic effect chemodynamic lung cancer therapy

Abstract

The mortality and morbidity rates of lung cancer are extremely high. Thus, the development of efficient diagnostic and therapeutic agents for lung cancer is warranted. We aimed to construct a new theranostic drug based on mesoporous polydopamine (MP) for dual T1/T2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided chemo-photothermal chemotherapy. MP-nanomaterials (MP-NMs) loaded with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanomaterials (MP@SPIONs) were co-loaded with sialic acid (SA) and Fe3+ (SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+). Subsequently, SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+/CTX was engineered for tumor theranostics using a cabazitaxel (CTX)-loaded prodrug. MTT analysis revealed that PEG-SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+/CTX was water soluble and biocompatible. Further, the new theranostic agent was demonstrated to have a great photothermal conversion/stability, with relaxivity of r1 = 4.31 mM−1s−1 and r2 = 104.64 mM−1s−1, respectively, based on its in vitro photothermal and relaxivity ability. SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+/CTX efficiently encapsulated CTX, enabling both pH- and thermally-induced drug release. Notably, SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+/CTX was found to efficiently target lung cancer cells in vitro. Moreover, SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+/CTX exhibited more accurate dual-mode T1-T2 contrast imaging, unlike those that did not undergo SA alteration, and exerted a more significant therapeutic efficacy owing to its dynamic targeting capabilities and the combination of chemotherapy and photothermal treatment based on SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+/CTX NMs. According to our findings, the targeted nanoplatform, SA-MP@SPION/Fe3+/CTX, is an excellent tumor theranostic tool that could be effectively applied for lung cancer treatment.