Gold Nanorods/Polypyrrole/m-SiO₂ Core/Shell Hybrids as Drug Nanocarriers for Efficient Chemo-Photothermal Therapy

Combination therapy as a novel strategy with the combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy (photothermal–chemotherapy) has aroused the tremendously increasing interest owing to the synergistic therapeutic effect on destroying cancer cells because the hyperthermia generated from photothermal therapy can promote drug delivery into tumors, which would highly increase therapeutic efficacy as compared to those sole treatments. Herein, we fabricated a novel nanomaterial-based carrier composed of gold nanorods (GNRs), polypyrrole (PPy), and mesoporous silica to form GNRs/PPy/m-SiO2 core/shell hybrids. After loading the anticancer drug of doxorubicin (DOX), the photothermal effect and the drug-release behavior of GNRs/PPy@m-SiO2-DOX hybrids were investigated. The in vitro and in vivo near-infrared (NIR) photothermal–chemotherapy were also revealed. The results indicated that the NIR-induced photothermal effect was beneficial to promote the release of the drug. In addition, combination therapy demonstrated the enhanced synergistic efficacy and excellent treatment efficacy for cancer therapy