2D-ultrathin MXene/DOXjade platform for iron chelation chemo-photothermal therapy

An increased demand for iron is a hallmark of cancer cells and is thought necessary to promote high cell proliferation,tumor progression and metastasis.This makes iron metabolism an attractive therapeutic target.Unfortunately,current iron-based therapeutic strategies often lack effectiveness and can elicit off-target toxicities.We report here a dual-therapeutic prodrug,DOXjade,that allows for iron chelation chemo-photothermal cancer therapy.This prodrug takes advantage of the clinically approved iron chelator deferasirox(ExJade®)and the topoisomerase 2 inhibitor,doxorubicin(DOX).Loading DOXjade onto ultrathin 2D Ti_(3)C_(2) MXene nanosheets produces a construct,Ti_(3)C_(2)-PVP@DOXjade,that allows the iron chelation and chemotherapeutic functions of DOXjade to be photo-activated at the tumor sites,while potentiating a robust photothermal effect with photothermal conversion efficiencies of up to 40%.Antitumor mechanistic investigations reveal that upon activation,Ti_(3)C_(2)-PVP@DOXjade serves to promote apoptotic cell death and downregulate the iron depletion-induced iron transferrin receptor(TfR).A tumor pH-responsive iron chelation/photothermal/chemotherapy antitumor effect was achieved both in vitro and in vivo.The results of this study highlight what may constitute a promising iron chelation-based phototherapeutic approach to cancer therapy.