Enzyme-induced in vivo assembly of gold nanoparticles for imaging-guided synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy of tumor

This article describes a nanoplatform based on matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-responsive gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for tumor-targeted photoacoustic (PA) imaging-guided photothermal therapy and drug delivery. AuNPs were grafted with complementary DNA strands, tethered with doxorubicin and coated with poly(ethylene glycol) via a thermal-labile linker and a MMP-cleavable peptide, respectively. The nanoprobes remained well-isolated in healthy tissues, but formed aggregates rapidly under MMP-abundant conditions. The DNA hybridization-induced assembly of the nanoprobes led to prolonged tumor retention and strong near-infrared (NIR) absorption, which is beneficial to deep-tissue imaging and therapy. Compared with MMP-inert nanoprobes, our platform demonstrated significantly enhanced efficiency in PA imaging and photothermal conversion upon NIR irradiation. Meanwhile, doxorubicin could be released rapidly in response to the localized elevation of temperature, leading to synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy. The unique nanoplatform may find applications in effective disease control by delivering imaging and therapy to tumors with high specificity, safety, and universality.