Engineered Organic Nanorockets with Light‐Driven Ultrafast Transportability for Antitumor Therapy

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 19; no. 21; pp. e2206426 - n/a
• Main Authors: Feng, Ao, Cheng, Xie, Huang, Xing, Liu, Yang, He, Zhaoxia, Zhao, Juan, Duan, Huiyan, Shi, Zhiqing, Guo, Jintang, Wang, Shuai, Yan, Xibo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-05-2023
• Subjects: Accumulation; Anticancer properties; antitumor therapy; Biomedical materials; Chemical energy; Effectiveness; Hot Temperature; Humans; Infrared Rays; Motion; Nanomedicine; nanomotors; nanoprecipitation; nanorockets; Nanotechnology; Neoplasms; Permeability; Pharmacology; Photothermal conversion; Physiology; self‐propulsion; Tumor Microenvironment; tumor penetration; nanoprecipitation; self-propulsion; antitumor therapy; nanorockets; tumor penetration; nanomotors
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202206426

Nanomedicines confront various complicated physiological barriers limiting the accumulation and deep penetration in the tumor microenvironment, which seriously restricts the efficacy of antitumor therapy. Self‐propelled nanocarriers assembled with kinetic engines can translate external energy into orientated motion for tumor penetration. However, achieving a stable ultrafast permeability at the tumor site remains challenging. Here, sub‐200 nm photoactivated completely organic nanorockets (NRs), with asymmetric geometry conveniently assembled from photothermal semiconducting polymer payload and thermo‐driven macromolecular propulsion through a straightforward nanoprecipitation process, are presented. The artificial NRs can be remotely manipulated by 808 nm near‐infrared light to trigger the photothermal conversion and Curtius rearrangement reaction within the particles for robustly pushing nitrogen out into the solution. Such a two‐stage light‐to‐heat‐to‐chemical energy transition effectively powers the NRs for an ultrafast (≈300 µm s−1) and chemical medium‐independent self‐propulsion in the liquid media. That endows the NRs with high permeability against physiological barriers in the tumor microenvironment to directionally deliver therapeutic agents to target lesions for elevating tumor accumulation, deep penetration, and cellular uptake, resulting in a significant enhancement of antitumor efficacy. This work will inspire the design of advanced kinetic systems for powering intelligent nanomachines in biomedical applications.
Engineered organic nanorockets are powered by photoactivated organic kinetic systems through a two‐stage light‐to‐heat‐to‐chemical energy transition for a stable ultrafast (≈300 µm s−1) self‐propulsion in the liquid media. The programmable navigation allows a high permeability against physiological barriers for elevating accumulation and deep penetration at the tumor site, thereby significantly enhancing the antitumor efficacy of the nanomedicines.