Background: The combination of chemotherapy with radiotherapy serves as a common therapeutic strategy in clinics. However, it is unsatisfactory due to its poor therapeutic efficiency and severe side-effects originating from chemotherapy-exerted systemic toxicity as well as radiation-induced injury.
Purpose: Hence, Berberine (Ber), an isoquinolin alkaloid with low toxicity and protective effects against radiotherapy, was used as a novel chemotherapeutic agent for chemo-radiotherapy of liver cancer.
Patients and methods: We preloaded Ber into folic acid targeting Janus gold mesoporous silica nanocarriers (FA-JGMSNs) for overcoming the poor bioavailability of Ber. Furthermore, FA-JGMSNs were not only employed as radiosensitizers for expanding radiotherapeutic effect, but also used as photothermal agents for supplementing chemo-radiotherapeutic effect by local photothermal therapy.
Results: In vitro and in vivo experiemtal results demonstrated the highly efficient anti-tumor effect, good biosafety as well as the effective protection of normal tissue of this nanoplatform.
Conclusion: Based on its superb performance, we believe our work provided a feasible strategy for triple-therapies of liver cancer.
Keywords: Berberine, chemotherapy, radio-sensitization, Au MSNs, Janus, photothermal therapy