Smart nanoplatform for sequential drug release and enhanced chemo-thermal effect of dual drug loaded gold nanorod vesicles for cancer therapy.

Background: The combination of multiple chemotherapeutics has been used in the clinic for enhanced cancer chemotherapy, however, frequent relapse, chemo-resistance and side effects remains therapeutic hurdles. Thus, the development of co-delivery system with enhanced targeting and synergistic different modal treatments has been proposed as promising strategies for intensive improvement of the therapeutic outcomes.

Results: We fabricated a nanocarrier based on gold nanorods (Au NRs), cRGD peptide-modified and multi-stimuli-responsive paclitaxel (PTX) and curcumin (CUR) release for synergistic anticancer effect and chemo-photothermal therapy (PTX/CUR/Au NRs@cRGD).

Rational design of multi-stimuli-responsive gold nanorod-curcumin conjugates for chemo-photothermal synergistic cancer therapy.

In recent decades, the development of novel photorelated nanomedicines as precise cancer nanotheranostics has received extensive attention. However, strategies aimed at integrating various stimuli-responsive multimodal therapies are needed. Herein, we developed a novel system for combined plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) and chemotherapy using the tumor microenvironment and near-infrared (NIR)-responsive gold nanorod-drug conjugates (Au NR@Curcumin).