Construction of all-in-one peptide nanomedicine with photoacoustic imaging guided mild hyperthermia for enhanced cancer chemotherapy

Abstract Engineered nanoplatforms for cancer simultaneous imaging and combinational therapy have emerged as a new trend in cancer theranostics. However, molecular engineering of nanomedicines with structure minimization and function maximization are still in acute famine. In this study, a novel kind of supramolecular peptide nanomedicine with all-in-one property was delicately constructed for tumor photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and chemo-photothermal combination therapy. The designed peptide conjugates were easily one-step synthesized with high porphyrin and tyroservatide covalently loading, which self-assembled into supramolecular nanomedicine via non-covalent interactions. Stimulated by the photothermal effect of porphyrin, cancer cells became more susceptive to the chemotherapy drugs of tyroservatide, giving rise to enhanced histone acetylation and cell apoptosis. Moreover, with the assistance of PA imaging guided mild hyperthermia, the in vivo tumor inhibition rate of chemo-photothermal combination therapy with single one injection achieved to 70%, thereby can significantly reduce the doses of chemotherapy. The straightforward preparation process and high biosafety were capable of endowing the designed peptide nanomedicine with great potential for clinical transformation and application. This work provided new insights to fabricate all-in-one supramolecular nanoplatforms based on peptide self-assembly for tumor theranostics.