Facile synthesis of MoS@red phosphorus heterojunction for synergistically photodynamic and photothermal therapy of renal cell carcinoma.

The therapy of the clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is crucial for the human healthcare due to its easy metastasis and recurrence, as well as resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In this work, we propose the synthesis of MoS@red phosphorus (MoS@RP) heterojunction to induce synergistic photodynamic and photothermal therapy (PDT/PTT) of ccRCC. The MoS@RP heterojunction exhibits enhanced spectra absorption in the NIR range and produce local heat-increasing under the NIR laser irradiation compared with pure MoS and RP. The high photocatalytic activity of the MoS@RP heterojunction contributes to effective transferring of the photo-excited electrons from the RP to MoS, which promotes the production of various types of radical oxygen species (ROS) to kill the ccRCC cells. After the NIR irradiation, the MoS@RP can effectively induce the apoptosis in the ccRCC cells through localized hyperthermia and the generation of ROS, while exhibiting low cytotoxicity towards normal kidney cells. In comparison to MoS, the MoS@RP heterojunction shows an approximate increase of 22 % in the lethality rate of the ccRCC cells and no significant change in toxicity towards normal cells. Furthermore, the PDT/PTT treatment using the MoS@RP heterojunction effectively eradicates a substantial number of deep-tissue ccRCC cells in vivo without causing significant damage to major organs. This study presents promising effect of the MoS@RP heterojunction-based photo-responsive therapy for effective ccRCC treatment.