Abstract
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced apoptosis is a widely practiced strategy for cancer therapy. Although photodynamic therapy (PDT) takes advantages of spatial-temporal control of ROS generation, the meticulous participation of light, photosensitizer, and oxygen greatly hinders the broad application of PDT as a first-line cancer treatment option. Here, we developed an activatable system enabling tumor-specific singlet oxygen (
1
O
2
) generation for cancer therapy, based on a Fenton-like reaction between linoleic acid hydroperoxide (LAHP) tethered on iron oxide nanoparticles (IO NPs) and the released iron(II) ions from IO NPs under acidic-pH condition. We show that the IO-LAHP NPs are able to induce efficient apoptotic cancer cell death both in vitro and in vivo through tumor-specific
1
O
2
generation and subsequent ROS mediated mechanism. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of modulating biochemical reactions as a ROS source to exert cancer death, which may pave the way to develop novel strategies for cancer therapy.
Singlet oxygen generation
through an activatable biochemical reaction between lipid hydroperoxide and catalytic iron(II) ions from iron oxide nanoparticles was engineered as a novel cancer therapy strategy, which showed promise to exert apoptotic cancer cell death both
in
vitro and
in vivo
.
