Carboxymethyl chitosan based redox-responsive micelle for near-infrared fluorescence image-guided photo-chemotherapy of liver cancer

High-efficient vectors for the co-delivery of photosensitizers and chemotherapeutics were urgently needed for the combination therapy. In this work, a redox-responsive micelle (PCL-SS-CMC-GA) was prepared for the co-delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) and pheophorbide A (PHA). Poly-ε-caprolactone was linked to carboxymethyl chitosan through a disulfide bond, which was easily broken in the reductive solution to release the payloads. The charge conversion property and glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) targeting ligand of the micelles effectively extended the average residence time (up to 18 times) in circulation and improved their intracellular uptake by HepG2 cells. The micelles exhibited an enhanced tumor accumulation and near infrared (NIR) imaging performance. More interestingly, this nanoplatform could fully exert the synergistic effect of DOX and PHA to improve the inhibition efficiency (with an inhibitory rate of 80.5 %) in vivo. With impressive photo-chemo theranostic and NIR imaging capability, PCL-SS-CMC-GA@DOX/PHA showed great potential in image-guided treatment of liver cancer.