Naphthalene Diimide-Based Polycyclic Conjugated Molecule Composite CoFe₂O₄ Nanohybrids for Photoacoustic Imaging-Mediated Photo-/Sonic Therapy.

Abstract

The complex and harsh tumor microenvironment imped the efficacy of single-modality tumor therapy. With the advantages of biosafety, organic/inorganic nanohybrids have attracted more and more interest of researchers, and it is critical to investigate the development of highly efficient nanohybrids for multimodality combination therapy of cancers. Herein, a naphthalene diimide-based polycyclic conjugated molecule (NDI-S) is designed and synthesized, which has broader light absorption in the near infrared (NIR) region, outstanding photothermal conversion ability, and excellent photostability. Inorganic CoFe₂O₄ is synthesized via a solvothermal technique, which can produce much more reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a sonosensitizer when activated by ultrasonic (US). NDI-S and CoFe₂O₄ are then nanoprecipitated to create the organic/inorganic nanohybrids, NDI-S@CoFe₂O_4. According to the results of in vitro and in vivo experiments, NDI-S@CoFe₂O₄ can serve as a multifunctional nanoplatform for multimodal treatment of tumors in combination with photothermal/photodynamic/sonodynamic- therapy under the guidance of photoacoustic imaging, which provides a new vision of the development of organic/inorganic nanohybrids for cancer theranostics.