A hollow-structured nanohybrid: Intelligent and visible drug delivery and photothermal therapy for cancer.

It is of great valuable in drug delivery to fabricate multifunctional nanovehicle for cancer therapy. Herein, hollow-structured hCuS@Au nanoshell/satellite composite with doxorubicin-carrying was designed and synthesized for intelligent and visible drug delivery and satisfactory photothermal therapy. By modification of disulfide linkage bridged Au nanoshell and multi-carboxylic graphene quantum dots (MC-GODs) on the surface of hCuS@Au nanoparticles, both the high concentration of glutathione and low pH in cancer cell/tissue can induce responsive drug release. The satisfactory photothermal conversion efficiency (32%) of hCuS@Au@MC-GODs under 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation ascribed to the reduced bandgap and more circuit paths for electron transitions for hCuS modified with Au nanoparticles depend on density functional theory, which antitumor therapy efficacy was greatly enhanced by combining chemo- and photothermal therapy. Moreover, the fluorescence of MC-GODs was quenched/"turn off" as linking to the surface of hCuS@Au, and also restored/"turn on" as the MC-GODs detaching from the surface of hCuS@Au. The fluorescent switch of MC-GODs can serve as both a controllable drug release "guard" and "eyes" for visualized monitoring. The multi-modality therapy with controllable drug delivery, visual monitoring and high photothermal conversion efficiency may be anticipated by this versatile strategy.