Multifunctional nanocapsules on a seesaw balancing sonodynamic and photodynamic therapies against superficial malignant tumors by effective immune-enhancement.

The effective strategy to treat superficial malignant tumors is challenging due to the complexed mechanisms for tumor growth inhibition. The proposed immune-enhancement and immune response activation pathways rely on the direct and massive implementation of therapeutic agents. In this manuscript, an alternative route has been developed to apply the multifunctional peptide amphiphile-Rose Bengal (RB) nanocapsules for noninvasive sonodynamic and photodynamic therapies in association with the targeted immune enhancement to tumor proliferation. The nanocapsules proved better RB loading capacity, comparable reactive oxygen species generation and improved B16 and HeLa cell killing capability. The proof-of-principle in-vivo nude mice therapy studies with routine blood examinations and cytokine analysis validated their effectiveness for tumor cell elimination, and a direct tumor vasculature damage for efficacious lesion necrosis, positive prognosis with minimized side-effects. This state-of-the-art strategy provides a promising route to merge tumor enhancement and tumor response activation methodologies, and is expected to be universalized for a broad spectra of cancer diseases.