NIR Light Degradable Antimony Nanoparticle Based Drug Delivery Nanosystem for Synergistic Chemo-Photothermal Therapy In Vitro

A novel drug delivery nanosystem based on near-infrared (NIR) light degradable antimony nanoparticles (AMNP) has been developed for synergistic chemo-phototherapy in vitro. The mono-dispersed AMNP were synthesized by using a simple and cost effective method. Positively charged doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was loaded onto the negatively charged surface of AMNP via electrostatic interaction and finally modified by polyacrylic acid (PAA) to enhance biocompatibility. Under NIR (808 nm) laser irradiation of the AMNP-DOX-PAA nanosystem, not only high photothermal conversion efficiency of AMNP was achieved but also a pH dependent DOX release was enhanced due to laser induced hyperthermia. As a consequence, almost all the HeLa cells (around 97%) were killed because of the combined effects of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy. More interestingly, AMNP showed very fast (about 10 min) laser induced degradation that may help to minimize long term toxicity after therapy by using same wavelength NIR laser irradi...