NIR-Triggered Chemo-Photothermal Therapy by Thermosensitive Gold Nanostar@Mesoporous Silica@Liposome-Composited Drug Delivery Systems

Multimodal therapeutic strategy that combines drug delivery with other treatments (e.g., photodynamic therapy) is highly desired for biomedical applications. Here, we engineer a promising versatile platform based on gold nanostar liposome-entrapped mesoporous silica core–shell nanostructure (GSMS@lip). This system not only served as a container for therapeutic drugs (hydrophilic doxorubicin and hydrophobic docetaxel), but also had high photothermal conversion efficiency. Specifically, the thermosensitive liposome wrapping around mesoporous silica acted as a gatekeeper to encapsulate the drug molecules within the GSMS/Dox/Doc@lip drug delivery system. After exposure to near-infrared (NIR) laser, gold nanostar significantly raised the ambient temperature via photothermal conversion, thereby rupturing the thermosensitive liposomes and subsequently triggering the drug release. Benefiting from the combined chemo-photothermal therapy, this composite system showed enhanced cytotoxicity to MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, effective drug release and synergistic inhibition of tumor growth were achieved after intratumoral injection of GSMS/Dox/Doc@lip followed by NIR laser irradiation. The proposed multifunctional drug delivery system is capable of codelivering hydrophilic-hydrophobic drugs, providing a potential strategy for multimodal tumor therapies.