NIR-Absorbing Dye Functionalized Supramolecular Vesicles for Chemo-photothermal Synergistic Therapy

Developing multifunctional supramolecular nanoplatforms for effective tumor therapy is a challenging task. In this contribution, a NIR-absorbing perylene diimide dye G has been prepared, which not only acted as a photothermal agent, but also served as a guest. Multifunctional supramolecular vesicles were efficiently constructed by the recognition of dye G and water-soluble pillar[5]arene, which showed high-loading capacity for hydrophobic chemotherapy drug doxorubicin. What’s more, the resulting drug-loaded vesicles had high stability in simulated normal physiological condition but showed rapid drug release in the acidic microenvironment. Additionally, the drug-loaded vesicles exhibited more remarkable antitumor efficacy than chemotherapy or photothermal treatment alone through chemo-photothermal synergistic therapy. Furthermore, such supramolecular drug nanocarriers could efficiently get inside the tumor cells mainly via endocytosis to obtain excellent accumulation of drug in tumor sites. Overall, this s...