Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death globally and
metastasis always leads to treatment failure. Here, we develop a versatile
hydrogel loading photothermal agents, chemotherapeutics, and immune-adjuvants to eradicate orthotopic
tumors and inhibit
metastasis by combinational
therapy.
Hydrogel networks were synthesized via the
thiol-Michael addition of
polydopamine (PDA) with thiolated
hyaluronic acid. PDA acted as a cross-linking agent and endowed the
hydrogel with excellent photothermal property. Meanwhile, a chemotherapeutic agent,
doxorubicin (DOX), was loaded in the
hydrogel via π‒π stacking with PDA and an immune-adjuvant,
CpG-ODN, was loaded via electrostatic interaction. The release of DOX from the
hydrogel was initially slow but accelerated due to near infrared light irradiation. The
hydrogels showed remarkably synergistic effect against 4T1
cancer cells and stimulated plenty of
cytokines secreting from RAW264.7 cells. Moreover, the
hydrogels eradicated orthotopic murine
breast cancer xenografts and strongly inhibited
metastasis after intratumoral injection and light irradiation. The high anticancer efficiency of this chemo-photothermal
immunotherapy resulted from the strong synergistic effect of the versatile
hydrogels, including the evoked host immune response. The combinational strategy of chemo-photothermal
immunotherapy is promising for highly effective treatment of
breast cancer.