A “precision medicine” nanoplatform for synergistic photothermal therapy and chemotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma

Targeted peptide-mediated photothermal therapy (PTT) in combination with chemotherapy has great potency in the field of “precision medicine” because of its ability to increase drug enrichment in the focal region, reduce systemic toxicity, and provide the advantages of superb spatial-temporal control and non-invasiveness. In this work, we developed a FoxM1c-targeted nanoplatform (GSDP) for synergistic PTT and chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Under irradiation with an 808-nm laser, the enriched nanodrug in tumor sites could convert near-infrared (NIR) light into heat, causing tumor temperature to exceed the safety threshold, the high temperature triggers the release of Doxorubicin (DOX) correspondingly, which can achiev the synergistic PTT-chemotherapy treatment. More strikingly, the nanoplatform achieved "precision medicine" of tumors due to the modification of 9R-P201 peptide, ultimately achieved a tumor suppression rate of 84.6% in HCC. Hence, the design of this synergistic therapeutic platform offers a new perspective for improving the therapeutic efficacy of HCC.