Multimodal Cancer Theranosis Using Hyaluronate-Conjugated Molybdenum Disulfide.

Among various 2D nanomaterials, molybdenum disulfide (MoS ) exhibits unique visible photoluminescence with high absorption at the near-infrared (NIR) range. Despite these optical properties, the efforts to use MoS nanomaterials for optical imaging and photothermal therapy are hampered by their instability and low intracellular delivery efficiency. Multifunctional MoS conjugated with hyaluronate (HA) for cancer theranosis is reported herein. HA facilitates the delivery of MoS to tumor cells by the HA-receptor mediated endocytosis. In BALB/c nude mice inoculated with a colorectal cancer cell line of HCT116, HA-MoS conjugates appear to be accumulated in the primary tumor at a content more than that in the liver and kidney. The disulfide bonding between MoS and thiolated HA seems to degrade in the cytoplasm, releasing MoS sheets in stacks and enhancing luminescence efficiency. The HA-MoS conjugates are readily detected via photoacoustic imaging as well as upconversion and downconversion fluorescence imaging. With NIR light illumination, HA-MoS conjugates enable highly effective photothermal tumor ablation. All these results confirm the promising potential of HA-MoS conjugates for cancer theranosis.