Light and sound to trigger the Pandora's box against breast cancer: A combination strategy of sonodynamic, photodynamic and photothermal therapies

Abstract

An ideal strategy to eliminate cancerous lesions is to implement light/sound as the most natural approaches, so that a non-invasive treatment can be realized to decrease the mortality and enhance the health quality of patients. Herein, the composite peptide amphiphile-ICG nanomicelles were fabricated via the self-assembly of engineered peptide amphiphiles in corporation with a sono-/photosensitizer of ICG encapsulation. As a multifunctional nanoagent, they were utilized to the SDT-PDT-PTT combination therapy, which proved prevailing efficiency for in-vitro cell targeting and in-vivo tumor treatments against breast tumors. The immune response activation mechanism on tumor inhibition and lesion necrosis were explained by routine blood examinations, pro-inflammatory cytokines analysis and histological HE-TUNEL stainings. In summary, this non-invasive strategy paves a promising way to the combination therapy against cancers, and it will be an extremely attracting approach for neuro-carcinomas and cerebral diseases treatments readily triggered by light/sound as an external controllable source.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Nanomicelle; Photodynamic therapy; Photothermal therapy; Self-assembly; Sonodynamic therapy.