A Polyoxometalate-Encapsulated Metal-Organic Framework Nanoplatform for Synergistic Photothermal-Chemotherapy and Anti-Inflammation of Ovarian Cancer.

Photothermal therapy (PTT), as a noninvasive and local treatment, has emerged as a promising anti-tumor strategy with minimal damage to normal tissue under spatiotemporally controllable irradiation. However, the necrosis of cancer cells during PTT will induce an inflammatory reaction, which may motivate tumor regeneration and resistance to therapy. In this study, polyoxometalates and a chloroquine diphosphate (CQ) co-loaded metal-organic framework nanoplatform with hyaluronic acid coating was constructed for efficient ovarian cancer therapy and anti-inflammation. Our results demonstrated that this nanoplatform not only displayed considerable photothermal therapeutic capacity under 808 nm near-infrared laser, but also had an impressive anti-inflammatory capacity by scavenging reactive oxygen species in the tumor microenvironment. CQ with pH dependence was used for the deacidification of lysosomes and the inhibition of autophagy, cutting off a self-protection pathway induced by cell necrosis-autophagy, and achieving the synergistic treatment of tumors. Therefore, we combined the excellent properties of these materials to synthesize a nanoplatform and explored its therapeutic effects in various aspects. This work provides a promising novel prospect for PTT/anti-inflammation/anti-autophagy combinations for efficient ovarian cancer treatment through the fine tuning of material design.

Enhanced postoperative cancer therapy by iron-based hydrogels.

Surgical resection is a widely used method for the treatment of solid tumor cancers. However, the inhibition of tumor recurrence and metastasis are the main challenges of postoperative tumor therapy. Traditional intravenous or oral administration have poor chemotherapeutics bioavailability and undesirable systemic toxicity. Polymeric hydrogels with a three-dimensional network structure enable on-site delivery and controlled release of therapeutic drugs with reduced systemic toxicity and have been widely developed for postoperative adjuvant tumor therapy. Among them, because of the simple synthesis, good biocompatibility, biodegradability, injectability, and multifunctionality, iron-based hydrogels have received extensive attention. This review has summarized the general synthesis methods and construction principles of iron-based hydrogels, highlighted the latest progress of iron-based hydrogels in postoperative tumor therapy, including chemotherapy, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, chemo-dynamic therapy, and magnetothermal-chemical combined therapy, etc. In addition, the challenges towards clinical application of iron-based hydrogels have also been discussed. This review is expected to show researchers broad perspectives of novel postoperative tumor therapy strategy and provide new ideas in the design and application of novel iron-based hydrogels to advance this sub field in cancer nanomedicine.