ABSTRACT
The construction of advanced phototherapy systems with high therapeutic efficacy toward cancer and low side effects, especially targeted species, is highly desirable. Herein, we developed one kind of water-soluble hyaluronic acid-hybridized polyaniline nanoparticles (HA-PANI NPs) as a nanoplatform for photothermal therapy (PTT) with targeted specificity of a CD44-mediated cancer cell. The water-soluble HA-PANI NPs were fabricated by one-step oxidative polymerization using aniline as a polymerizable monomer and HA as a stabilizer and targeted agent, where non-covalent electrostatic interaction between the negatively charged polymer HA and the cationic polymer PANI drives the formation of HA-PANI NPs. It was demonstrated that approximately spherical HA-PANI NPs are well-dispersed in aqueous solutions, with average hydrodynamic diameters of around 100 nm. Besides, HA-PANI NPs have negligible cytotoxicity in vitro, which facilitates biomedical applications with low toxicity. We studied the in vitro photothermal cell-killing efficacy of HA-PANI NPs by MTT assay and confocal microscopy measurement. The results reveal that HA-PANI NPs can selectively kill the cancer cells of HeLa and HCT-116 cells rather than normal cells of HFF cells upon exposure to a NIR 808 nm laser. The efficient intracellular intake of the HA-PANI NPs by both HeLa and HCT-116 cells are observed, confirming their targeting ability for CD44-overexpressing cancer cells. Furthermore, the results of in vivo photothermal ablation of tumors show excellent treatment efficacy, indicating that the HA-PANI NPs can be considered as an extremely promising nanoplatform for targeted PTT of cancer.
