posted on 2019-01-22, 00:00authored byShenfei Zong, Lingling Wang, Zhaoyan Yang, Hong Wang, Zhuyuan Wang, Yiping Cui
As
one of the novel two-dimensional nanomaterials, black phosphorus
nanosheets (BP NS) have been proven to be excellent carrier materials
for drugs, owing to their fine optical properties and biocompatibility.
In this work, a composite drug nanocarrier based on BP NS is proposed,
which can perform a synergetic and targeted chemophotothermal therapy
of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). First, BP NS were prepared
by an improved liquid exfoliation technique. Then, polyethylene glycol
(PEG) was modified on the surfaces of BP NS through electrostatic
adsorption. Drug molecules can also be loaded onto the BP NS via electrostatic
adsorption. The PEG layer can effectively protect the interior BP
NS from water and air to enhance their physiological stability. The
obtained PEGylated BP NS (BP NS@PEG) not only demonstrated an excellent
photothermal conversion efficiency and photothermal stability but
also exhibited a good pH and photothermal dual-responsive drug release
behavior. In addition, the BP NS@PEG were further modified with Sgc8
aptamers through covalent bonding. The aptamers provided an efficient
specificity toward ALL cells (CCRF-CEM) and greatly increased the
endocytosis of the nanocarriers through a receptor-mediated manner,
which can further improve the therapeutic effect. Hence, the presented
BP NS-based multifunctional nanocarrier can achieve a targeted and
synergetic chemophotothermal therapy of ALL, which shows a promising
potential in improving the curative efficiency.