We have rationally designed a new
theranostic agent by coating near-infrared (NIR) light-absorbing
polypyrrole (PPY) with
poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), in which PAA acts as a nanoreactor and template, followed by growing small fluorescent
silica nanoparticles (fSiO2 NPs) inside the PAA networks, resulting in the formation of
polypyrrole@
polyacrylic acid/fluorescent mesoporous
silica (PPY@PAA/fmSiO2 ) core-shell NPs. Meanwhile, DOX-loaded PPY@PAA/fmSiO2 NPs as pH and NIR dual-sensitive
drug delivery vehicles were employed for fluorescence imaging and chemo-photothermal synergetic
therapy in vitro and in vivo. The results demonstrate that the PPY@PAA/fmSiO2 NPs show high in vivo
tumor uptake by the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect after
intravenous injection as revealed by in vivo fluorescence imaging, which is very helpful for visualizing the location of the
tumor. Moreover, the obtained NPs inhibit
tumor growth (95.6 % of
tumors were eliminated) because of the combination of chemo-
photothermal therapy, which offers a synergistically improved therapeutic outcome compared with the use of either
therapy alone. Therefore, the present study provides new insights into developing NIR and pH-stimuli responsive PPY-based multifunctional platform for
cancer theranostics.