Aiming at improved therapeutic efficacies, the combination of
chemotherapy and
radiotherapy (chemo-
radiotherapy) has been widely studied and applied in clinic. However, the hostile characteristics of tumor microenvironment such as
hypoxia often limit the efficacies in both types of
cancer therapies. Herein,
catalase (CAT), an
antioxidant enzyme, is encapsulated inside
liposomes constituted by
cisplatin (IV)-
prodrug-conjugated
phospholipid, forming CAT@Pt (IV)-
liposome for enhanced chemo-
radiotherapy of
cancer. After being loaded inside
liposomes, CAT within CAT@Pt (IV)-
liposome shows retained and well-protected
enzyme activity, and is able to trigger decomposition of H2O2 produced by
tumor cells, so as to produce additional
oxygen for
hypoxia relief. As the result, treatment of CAT@Pt (IV)-
liposome induces the highest level of DNA damage in
cancer cells after X-ray radiation compared to the control groups. In vivo
tumor treatment further demonstrates a remarkably improved therapeutic outcome in chemo-
radiotherapy with such CAT@Pt (IV)-
liposome nanoparticles. Hence, an exquisite type of
liposome-based nanoparticles is developed in this work by integrating
cisplatin-based
chemotherapy and
catalase-induced tumor hypoxia relief together for combined chemo-
radiotherapy with great synergistic efficacy, promising for clinical translation in
cancer treatment.