Smart Assembled Human Serum Albumin Nanocarrier Enhanced Breast Cancer Treatment and Antitumor Immunity by Chemo-photothermal Therapy

High invasion and metastasis are the major obstacles to successful breast cancertherapy. Indocyanine green (ICG), a photosensitizer for photothermal therapy (PTT), shows potent anticancer efficacy when combined with the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX). Human serum albumin (HSA), a biocompatible carrier material, has been successfully used for the delivery of paclitaxel (Abraxane). In addition, there are ICG functional binding regions in HSA. Thus, a smart assembled nanoplatform (DI@HSA NPs) was constructed to achieve the synergistic effects of chemo-photothermal therapy against breast cancer. Compared to free ICG and free DOX, DI@HSA NPs showed satisfactory stability and exhibited an enhanced tumor targeting capacity. The mild hyperthermia generated by DI@HSA NPs can not only cause tumor photothermal ablation and promote the uptake of DI@HSA NPs by 4T1 cells, but also protect the healthy tissues nearby the tumor from overheating injury. More importantly, DI@HSA NPs greatly amplified the infiltration of CD4(+) T cells and CD8(+) T cells, resulting in inhibited tumor growth and metastasis. DI@HSA NPs, as a simple biocompatible nanoagent, showed excellent inhibition of breast cancer growth and metastasis by chemo-photothermal therapy, providing a potential strategy for the future therapy of breast cancer.