| خلاصه مقاله | Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a laser-based, targeted technique for destroying tumor cells
that is induced by light-heat conversion in cancer cells until the cells die. PTT has received
a lot of attention because of its exceptional specificity, limited invasiveness, and low toxicity
to normal tissues, and potent anti-tumor performance. For these reasons, it may be an
effective technique for treating kinds of breast cancer that are resistant to conventional
therapies. The combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy in cancer therapy can
lead to the increased therapeutic success of both strategies with lower side effects. For this
aim, chitosan-coated copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuS@CS-NPs) were designed and
synthesized as a photothermal agent, using copper sulfate as the copper source and sodium
sulfide as a sulfide source. Later, nanogels form of nanoparticles (CuS@CS-NGs) were
obtained after adding tripolyphosphate pentabasic (TPP). Structural characterization of the
prepared nanogels was done by different methods such as FT-IR and XRD analysis. Particle
size distribution and zeta potential of the prepared nanogels were determined by DLS. TEM
was conducted for morphological analysis. Under the irradiation of 808 nm laser at a power
density of 1 W/cm2 the photothermal effects of various concentrations of CuS@CS-NGs
solutions were measured. After encapsulation of paclitaxel to CuS@CS-NGs, the amount of
loaded drug from nanogels was analyzed using UV absorbance. Release of paclitaxel from
nanogels was performed at 37 °C with a shaking speed of 150 rpm under various pH values
of 5.8 and 7.4. The cytotoxicity of the nanogels alone and paclitaxel-loaded nanogels against
the MCF7 cell line was investigated via MTT assay in presence and absence of NIR
irradiation. The apoptotic effect of the nanogels alone and paclitaxel-loaded nanogels on
cancer cells was determined after 72 hours of treatment using flow cytometry. After labeling
the nanogels alone and paclitaxel-loaded nanogels with FITC, the cellular uptake of nanogels
in cancer cells was determined via flow cytometry. TEM images indicated that CuS@CSNPs and CuS@CS-NGs had average size of 10 nm and 30 nm, respectively, while their
average hydrodynamic size in aqueous dispersion was 153.7 and 200.9 in the same order
which was measured by DLS. Under NIR irradiation, the temperature of an aqueous
dispersion containing 5 mg/mL nanogels was dramatically increased from 27 to 55 °C in 360
seconds of exposure, while the temperature elevation of 2 mg/ml nanogel solution was from
27 to 44 °C, which proved that photothermal efficacy could increase with a higher
concentration of the photothermal agent. Based on the drug release profile, the cumulative
drug release at the pH of 7.4 is 38.99% after 168 h. With lowering the pH of the release
medium to 5.8, the drug release reached 35.19%. After introducing paclitaxel to nanogels,
the cellular uptake by the cancer cells was increased from 23.05 to 43.02. Based on Flow
cytometry-based apoptosis/necrosis assay of MCF-7 cells, we could confirm that a
combination of photothermal and chemotherapy has a better cytotoxic effect than each one
alone. |