The development of nanoscaled theranostic agents for cancer combination therapies has received intensive attention in recent years. In this report, a degradable hollow mesoporous PEG-Si/C-DOX NP is designed and fabricated for pH-responsive, photoacoustic imaging-guided highly effective chemo-thermal combination therapy. The intrinsic hollow mesoporous structure endows the as-synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) with a high drug loading capacity (31.1%). Under NIR (808 nm) irradiation, the photothermal conversion efficiency of the Si/C NPs is as high as 40.7%. Preferential accumulation of the PEG-Si/C-DOX NPs around tumor tissue was demonstrated with photoacoustic images. Cellular internalization of the NPs and release of the DOX in nuclei are shown with fluorescent images. With efficient NIR photothermal conversion and high DOX loading capacity, the PEG-Si/C-DOX NPs are demonstrated to have remarkable cancer-cell-killing ability and to achieve complete in vivo tumor elimination via combinational chemo-thermal therapy. Last but not least, the NPs show good biodegradability and biosafety, making them a promising candidate for multifunctional drug delivery and cancer theranostic.

中文翻译：

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可降解的中空介孔硅/碳纳米粒子，用于光声成像引导的体外和体内高效化学热肿瘤治疗

近年来，用于癌症联合疗法的纳米级治疗药物的开发受到了广泛的关注。在本报告中，设计并制造了可降解的中空介孔PEG-Si / C-DOX NP，用于pH响应，光声成像引导的高效化学热联合疗法。固有的中空介孔结构赋予了合成后的纳米颗粒（NPs）较高的载药量（31.1％）。在NIR（808 nm）照射下，Si / C NPs的光热转换效率高达40.7％。通过光声图像证明了PEG-Si / C-DOX NPs在肿瘤组织周围的优先积累。用荧光图像显示NP的细胞内在化和DOX在核中的释放。借助高效的近红外光热转换和高DOX负载能力，PEG-Si / C-DOX NPs被证明具有卓越的癌细胞杀伤能力，并通过化学热疗联合治疗实现了体内肿瘤的完全消除。最后但并非最不重要的是，NP具有良好的生物降解性和生物安全性，使其成为多功能药物递送和癌症治疗药物的有前途的候选者。