Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Construction and evaluation of curcumin upconversion nanocarriers decorated with MnO2 for tumor photodynamic therapy

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Drug Delivery and Translational Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The limited tissue penetration depth and tumor hypoxic microenvironment have become the two pivotal obstacles that alleviate the antineoplastic efficacy in tumor photodynamic therapy (PDT). In the research, MnO2-decorated upconversion nanoparticles (UCSMn) have been designed to generate certain oxygen within the solid tumor, and also increase the light penetrating depth due to the optical conversion ability derived from upconversion nanoparticles. Furthermore, upconversion nanoparticles as the inner core are coated by mesoporous silica for the loading of curcumin as photosensitizer and chemotherapeutics, and then a MnO2 shell is proceeding to grow via redox method. When reaching the tumor tissue, the MnO2 nanoshells of UCSMn could be rapidly degraded into manganese ions (Mn2+) owing to the reaction with H2O2 in acidic tumor microenvironment, meanwhile producing oxygen and facilitating curcumin release. Once the tumor is illuminated by 980 nm light, the upconversion nanoparticles can transform the infrared light to visible light of 450 nm and 475.5 nm, which can be efficiently absorbed by curcumin, and then produce singlet oxygen to induce tumor cell apoptosis. Curcumin played a dual role which can not only be acted as a photosensitizer, but also a chemotherapeutic agent to further reinforce the antitumor activity. In short, the intelligent nanostructure has the potential to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings existed in PDT and eventually do work well in the hypoxia tumors.

Graphical abstract

MnO2-decorated upconversion nanoparticle to solve the tissue penetration and tumor hypoxic microenvironment for tumor photodynamic therapy

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

References

  1. Agostinis P, Berg K, Cengel KA, et al. Photodynamic therapy of cancer: an update [J]. CA-Cancer J Clin. 2011;61(4):250–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Henderson BW, Dougherty TJ. How does photodynamic therapy work? [J]. Photochem Photobiol. 1992;55(1):145–57.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Brown SB, Brown EA, Walker I. The present and future role of photodynamic therapy in cancer treatment [J]. Lancet Oncol. 2004;5(8):497–508.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Daruwalla J, Christophi C. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for malignancy: a review [J]. World J Surg. 2006;30(12):2112–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Brown JM, Wilson WR. Exploiting tumour hypoxia in cancer treatment [J]. Nat Rev Cancer. 2004;4(6):437–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Pan C, Ou MT, Cheng QZ, et al. Z-scheme heterojunction functionalized pyrite nanosheets for modulating tumor microenvironment and strengthening photo/chemodynamic therapeutic effects [J]. Adv Funct Mater. 2020;30(3):1906466.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Zeng WW, Zhang HJ, Deng YM, et al. Dual-response oxygen-generating mno2 nanoparticles with polydopamine modification for combined photothermal-photodynamic therapy [J]. Chem Eng J. 2020;389:124494.

  8. Van Beek J. The Dynamic Side of the Warburg Effect: glycolytic intermediate storage as buffer for fluctuating glucose and O2 supply in tumor cells [J]. F1000 Res. 2018;7:1177.

  9. Chen Q, Liang C, Sun X, et al. H2O2-responsive liposomal nanoprobe for photoacoustic inflammation imaging and tumor theranostics via in vivo chromogenic assay [J]. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2017;114(21):5343–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Fan W, Bu W, Shen B, et al. Intelligent MnO2 nanosheets anchored with upconversion nanoprobes for concurrent pH-/H2O2-responsive UCL imaging and oxygen-elevated synergetic therapy [J]. Adv Mater. 2015;27(28):4155–61.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Upreti M, Jyoti A, Sethi P. Tumor microenvironment and nanotherapeutics [J]. Transl Cancer Res. 2013;2(4):309–19.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang HJ, Zeng WW, Pan C, et al. SnTe@MnO2-SP nanosheet-based intelligent nanoplatform for second near-infrared light-mediated cancer theranostics [J]. Adv Funct Mater. 2019;29(37):1903791.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ding B, Zheng P, Ma P, et al. Manganese oxide nanomaterials: synthesis, properties, and theranostic applications [J]. Adv Mater. 2020;32:190582310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Qiu H, Tan M, Ohulchanskyy TY, et al. Recent progress in upconversion photodynamic therapy [J]. Nanomaterials. 2018;8(3445).

  15. Hong G, Diao S, Chang J, et al. Through-skull fluorescence imaging of the brain in a new near-infrared window [J]. Nat Photonics. 2014;8(9):723–30.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Kobayashi H, Ogawa M, Alford R, et al. New strategies for fluorescent probe design in medical diagnostic imaging [J]. Chem Rev. 2010;110(5):2620–40.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Zhou Z, Song J, Nie L, et al. Reactive oxygen species generating systems meeting challenges of photodynamic cancer therapy [J]. Chem Soc Rev. 2016;45(23):6597–626.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Ai F, Ju Q, Zhang X, et al. A core-shell-shell nanoplatform upconverting near-infrared light at 808 nm for luminescence imaging and photodynamic therapy of cancer [J]. Sci Rep. 2015;5:10785.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Wilhelm S. Perspectives for upconverting nanoparticles [J]. ACS Nano. 2017;11(11):10644–53.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Park K, Lee JH. Photosensitizer effect of curcumin on uvb-irradiated HaCaT cells through activation of caspase pathways [J]. Oncol Rep. 2007;17(3):537–40.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Ailioaie LM, Ailioaie C, Litscher G. Latest innovations and nanotechnologies with curcumin as a nature-inspired photosensitizer applied in the photodynamic therapy of cancer [J]. Pharmaceutics. 2021;13(10).

  22. Hatcher H, Planalp R, Cho J, et al. Curcumin: from ancient medicine to current clinical trials [J]. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2008;65(11):1631–52.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Wang F, Deng R, Liu X. Preparation of core-shell NaGdF4 nanoparticles doped with luminescent lanthanide ions to be used as upconversion-based probes [J]. Nat Protoc. 2014;9(7):1634–44.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Yuan J, Cen Y, Kong XJ, et al. MnO2-nanosheet-modified upconversion nanosystem for sensitive turn-on fluorescence detection of H2O2 and glucose in blood [J]. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2015;7(19):10548–55.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Yang X, Xiong J, Qiu P, et al. Synthesis of a core/satellite-like multifunctional nanocarrier for pH and NIR-triggered intracellular chemothermal therapy and tumor imaging [J]. RSC Adv. 2017;7(13):7742–52.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Chatterjee S, Lee MW, Woo SH. Influence of impregnation of chitosan beads with cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide on their structure and adsorption of Congo red from aqueous solutions [J]. Chem Eng J. 2009;155(1–2):254–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Selvakumar K, Kumar SMS, Thangamuthu R, et al. Physiochemical investigation of shape-designed MnO2 nanostructures and their influence on oxygen reduction reaction activity in alkaline solution [J]. J Phys Chem C. 2015;119(12):6604–18.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Liu J, Bu W, Zhang S, et al. Controlled synthesis of uniform and monodisperse upconversion core/mesoporous silica shell nanocomposites for bimodal imaging [J]. Chem Eur J. 2012;18(8):2335–41.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Chen H, Tian J, He W, et al. H2O2-activatable and O2-evolving nanoparticles for highly efficient and selective photodynamic therapy against hypoxic tumor cells [J]. J Am Chem Soc. 2015;137(4):1539–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We appreciated Xiaoyan Chen and Yingtao Zhong for the help in the preparation of upconversion nanoparticles.

Funding

The study was supported by the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (Grant numbers 201904010110).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China

    Xinru Chen, Quandong Li, Zipeng Huang, Wen Lin & Yan Ma

Authors
  1. Xinru Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Quandong Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zipeng Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Wen Lin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yan Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Yan Ma proposed the idea and participated in the design of the study. Xinru Chen collected literature search and carried out the study. Quandong Li performed the statistical analysis. Zipeng Huang provided the assistance in manuscript preparation. Wen Lin provided assistance in the manuscript editing and review. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yan Ma.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The experimental protocol was established, according to the ethical guidelines of the Helsinki Declaration and was approved by the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

Consent for publication

All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Xinru Chen and Quandong Li share first authorship of this article.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, X., Li, Q., Huang, Z. et al. Construction and evaluation of curcumin upconversion nanocarriers decorated with MnO2 for tumor photodynamic therapy. Drug Deliv. and Transl. Res. 12, 2678–2692 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-022-01118-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-022-01118-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation