With
the advent of nucleosome/nucleotide intercalating
drugs, DNA-based
nanocarriers have recently gained impetus. However, most of the newly
proposed DNA nanosystems are rather complex, thereby having low scalability
and translatability. In this study, we propose a simple DNA nanomatrix
core encapsulated within a chitosan shell, which is expected to enhance
the encapsulation efficiency of intercalating drugs. This has been
demonstrated using proflavine hemisulfate (PfHS), a model intercalating
agent that shows improved ROS generation, among other anticancerous
properties. The release of the drug from the nanomatrix is triggered
by providing a heat trigger using IR-792 perchlorate, a known NIR
photothermal sensitizer.