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While calcium-overload-mediated therapy (COMT) is a promising but largely untapped therapeutic strategy, combinatory therapy greatly boosts treatment outcomes with integrated merits of different therapies. Herein, a BPQD@CaO 2 -PEG-GPC3Ab nanoplatform is formulated by integrating calcium peroxide (CaO 2 ) and black phosphorus quantum dot (BPQD, photosensitizer) with active-targeting glypican-3 antibody (GPC3Ab), for combinatory photodynamic therapy (PDT) and COMT in response to acidic pH and near-infrared (NIR) light, wherein CaO 2 serves as the reservoir of calcium ions (Ca 2+ ) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). Navigated by GPC3Ab to tumor cells at acidic pH, the nanoparticle disassembles to CaO 2 and BPQD; CaO 2 produces COMT Ca 2+ and H 2 O 2 , while H 2 O 2 makes oxygen (O 2 ) to promote PDT; under NIR irradiation BPQD facilitates not only the conversion of O 2 to singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) for PDT, but also moderate hyperthermia to accelerate NP dissociation to CaO 2 and BPQD, and conversions of CaO 2 to Ca 2+ and H 2 O 2 , and H 2 O 2 to O 2 , to enhance both COMT and PDT. After supplementary ionomycin treatment to induce intracellular Ca 2+ bursts, the multimodal therapeutics strikingly induce hepatocellular carcinoma apoptosis, likely through the activation of the calpains and caspases 12, 9, and 3, up-regulation of Bax and down-regulation of Bcl-2 proteins. This nanoplatform enables a mutually-amplifying and self-reinforcing synergistic therapy., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Abstract Multidrug resistance (MDR) in tumor cells is a significant obstacle to the success of chemotherapy in many cancers. The purpose of this research is to test the possibility of docetaxel-loaded poly (ε-caprolactone)/Pluronic F68 (PCL/Pluronic F68) nanoparticles to overcome MDR in docetaxel-resistance human breast cancer cell line. Docetaxel-loaded nanoparticles were prepared by modified solvent displacement method using commercial PCL and self-synthesized PCL/Pluronic F68, respectively. PCL/Pluronic F68 nanoparticles were found to be of spherical shape with a rough and porous surface. The nanoparticles had an average size of around 200 nm with a narrow size distribution. The in vitro drug release profile of both nanoparticle formulations showed a biphasic release pattern. There was an increased level of uptake of PCL/Pluronic F68 nanoparticles in docetaxel-resistance human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7 TAX30, when compared with PCL nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity of PCL nanoparticles was higher than commercial Taxotere®in the MCF-7 TAX30 cell culture, but the differences were not significant (p > 0.05). However, the PCL/Pluronic F68 nanoparticles achieved significantly higher level of cytotoxicity than both of PCL nanoparticles and Taxotere®(p < 0.05), indicating docetaxel-loaded PCL/Pluronic F68 nanoparticles could overcome multidrug resistance in human breast cancer cells and therefore have considerable potential for treatment of breast cancer.