The synergistic
therapy, the combination of
photothermal therapy and
chemotherapy, has become a potential treatment in the battles with
cancer. Here, we developed a synergistic
therapy tool that based on
CuS nanoparticles-decorated
graphene oxide functionalized with
polyethylene glycol (PEG-GO/
CuS) for
cervical cancer treatment. The as-synthesized PEG-GO/
CuS nanocomposites with excellent biocompatibility was revealed to have high storage capacity for anticancer
drug of
doxorubicin (Dox) and high photothermal conversion efficiency, and were effectively employed for the ablation of
tumor. In addition, the therapeutic efficacy of Dox-loaded PEG-GO/
CuS (PEG-GO/
CuS/Dox) nanocomposites was evaluated in vitro and in vivo for
cervical cancer therapy. In vitro cell cytotoxicity tests of PEG-GO/
CuS/Dox demonstrate about 1.3 and 2.7-fold toxicity than PEG-GO/
CuS and free Dox under 5 min irradiation with NIR
laser at 1.0 W/cm(2), owing to both PEG-GO/
CuS-mediated photothermal ablation and cytotoxicity of light-triggered Dox release. In mouse models, mouse cervical
tumor growth was found to be significantly inhibited by the chemo-photothermal effect of PEG-GO/
CuS/Dox nanocomposites, resulting in effective
tumor reduction. Overall, compared with
chemotherapy or
photothermal therapy alone, the combined treatment demonstrates better therapeutic efficacy of
cancer in vitro and in vivo. These findings highlight the promise of the highly versatile multifunctional nanoparticles in biomedical application.