In this study, a versatile
tumor-targeted and multi-stimuli-responsive
drug delivery vehicle (Se particle@porous
silica-
folic acid-
copper sulfide/
doxorubicin (Se@SiO2-FA-
CuS/DOX)) was fabricated for combined
photothermal therapy with
chemotherapy in
cancer treatment. Due to excellent targeting ability, the Se@SiO2-FA-
CuS/DOX nanocomposites actively accumulated in
tumor tissues and thus provided
photothermal therapy under NIR irradiation and
chemotherapy through the release of DOX and Se. Owing to the synergistic effect of
chemotherapy (Se and DOX) and
photothermal therapy, the Se@SiO2-FA-
CuS/DOX nanocomposites could efficiently inhibit
cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo and even completely eliminate
tumors. Moreover, as the toxicity of DOX could be reduced by Se, the treatment using Se@SiO2-FA-
CuS/DOX nanocomposites exhibited no appreciable adverse reactions. Thus, the Se@SiO2-FA-
CuS/DOX nanocomposites have great potential as a multifunctional nanoplatform in future clinical applications.