Recently, Post doctor Mingzhou Wu reported a PEGylated Cu_7.2S₄/5MoS₂composite forsynergetic therapy and multimodal tumor imaging.This work was published inFrontiers in Chemistry(DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2021.695511)

Focusing on the increase mortality rate of cancer, highly effective cancer treatments to raise patient survival are urgently required. Photothermal therapy (PTT) with the advantages of high targeted location and minimal invasiveness has received much attention in recent years. Typically, inorganic photothermal agents, taken advantages of a tunable optical bandgap, controllable composition content, and desirable biocompatibility, provide excellent theranostic performances in oncological applications. In recent years, copper sulfide, which has an excellent photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE), good biocompatibility, and catalase-like activities, has attracted attention. In addition, medical imaging is a critical technique in achieving a highly effective therapy, particularly in determining the exact location of the tumor prior to treatment and real-time intraoperative navigation. Integration of therapeutic and medical imaging will be highly benefit on cancer therapeutic. As a result, constructing a well-designed nanoplatform that has therapy and imaging functions is important for nanomedicine in the future.

Herein, we synthesized a PEGylated Cu_7.2S₄/5MoS₂composite with a flower-like structure through a facile one-pot solvothermal method using a bottom-up approach by controlling the proportion of Cu and Mo precursors. The as-synthesized Cu_7.2S₄/5MoS₂-PEG worked as an effective photothermal agent, with a high photothermal conversion performance of 58.7%, and a chemodynamic-photodynamic therapy platform. Meanwhile, the obvious X-ray absorption ability of Mo gave them a PT/PA/CT imaging function, which could guide the treatment processes. These results demonstrated that we constructed a theranostic system for multimodal imaging and PTT dominant anticancer treatment, which showed a potential for biomedical applications.