Delivery IR820 to tumor using self-assembled polypeptide

Owing to the unique advantages of high specificity and minimal invasiveness, photothermal therapy (PTT) has been evidenced with great potential in treating cancer. However, most of photothermal agent presents shortage of photobleaching and nonspecific biodistribution in clinical application. In this study, we conjugated new Indocyanine Green (IR820) with self-assembly polypeptide (ELP) via chemical bond in aqueous environment. The preparation method could availably avoid to damage property for polypeptide. ELP-IR820 was fabricated nanoconjugates with diameters of approximately 50 nm. The ELP-IR820 notably enhanced photothermal-mediated cytotoxicity for CT-26 cancer cell. We demonstrated that the utility ELP-IR820 nanoparticle significantly improved tumor accumulation and photothermal effect in vivo compared to the free dye and monomer ELP-IR820. ELP-IR820 nanoparticle also exhibited the outstanding ability to cause prominent tumor tissue growth inhibition via photothermal effect. Those investigations broaden the application of NIR dye as a multimodal photothermal therapy platform.