pH/NIR Light-Controlled Multidrug Release via a Mussel-Inspired Nanocomposite Hydrogel for Chemo-Photothermal Cancer Therapy

This study reports on an intelligent composite hydrogel with both pH-dependent drug release in a cancer environment and heat generation based on NIR laser exposure, for the combined application of photothermal therapy (PTT) and multidrug chemotherapy. For the first time in the literature, Dopamine nanoparticle (DP) was incorporated as a highly effective photothermal agent as well as anticancer drug, bortezomib (BTZ) carrier inside a stimuli responsive pNIPAAm-co-pAAm hydrogel. When light is applied to the composite hydrogel, DP nanoparticle absorbs the light, which is dissipated locally as heat to impact cancer cells via hyperthermia. On the other hand, facile release of the anticancer drug BTZ from the surface of DP encapsulated hydrogel could be achieved due to the dissociation between catechol groups of DP and the boronic acid functionality of BTZ in typical acidic cancer environment. In order to increase the synergistic effect by dual drug delivery, Doxorubicin (DOXO) were also loaded to pNIPAAm-co-pAAm/DP-BTZ hydrogel and the effect of monotherapy as well as combined therapy were detailed by a complete characterization. Our results suggest that these mussel inspired nanocomposite with excellent heating property and controllable multidrug release can be considered as a potential material for cancer therapy.