Facile fabrications of poly (acrylic acid)-mesoporous zinc phosphate/polydopamine Janus nanoparticles as a biosafe photothermal therapy agent and a pH/NIR-responsive drug carrier

Balancing biocompatibility and drug-loading efficiency in nanoparticles presents a significant challenge. In this study, we describe the facile fabrication of poly (acrylic acid)-mesoporous zinc phosphate/polydopamine (PAA-mZnP/PDA) Janus nanoparticles (JNPs). The PDA half-shell itself can serve as a photothermal agent for photothermal therapy (PTT), as well as to offers sites for polyethylene glycol (PEG) to enhance biocompatibility. Concurrently, the mesoporous ZnP core allows high loading of doxorubicin (DOX) for chemotherapy and the Cy5.5 dye for fluorescence imaging. The resultant PAA-mZnP/PDA-PEG JNPs exhibit exceptional biocompatibility, efficient drug loading (0.5 mg DOX/1 mg JNPs), and dual pH/NIR-responsive drug release properties. We demonstrate the JNPs’ satisfactory anti-cancer efficacy, highlighting the synergistic effects of chemotherapy and PTT. Furthermore, the potential for synergistic fluorescence imaging-guided chemo-phototherapy in cancer treatment is illustrated. Thus, this work exemplifies the development of biosafe, multifunctional JNPs for advanced applications in cancer theranostics.

Statement of significance

Facile fabrication of monodispersed nanomedicine with multi-cancer killing modalities organically integrated is nontrivial and becomes more challenging under the biocompatibility requirement that is necessary for the practical applications of nanomedicines. In this study, we creatively designed PAA-mZnP/PDA JNPs and fabricated them under mild conditions. Our method reliably yields uniform JNPs with excellent monodispersity. To maximize functionalities, we achieve fourfold advantages including efficient drug/fluorescent dye loading, PTT, pH/NIR dual-responsive properties, and optimal biocompatibility. The as-fabricated JNPs exhibit satisfactory anti-cancer performance both in vitro and in vivo, and demonstrate the potential of JNPs in fluorescence imaging-guided synergistic cancer chemo-phototherapy. Overall, our research establishes a pathway in versatile inorganic/polymer JNPs for enhanced cancer diagnosis and therapy.