LAUSR

Abstract Near-infrared (NIR) light possesses great advantages for light-responsive controllable drug release, such as deep tissue penetration and low damage to healthy tissues. Herein, a targeted and NIR-triggered drug delivery system is developed based on a NIR dye, indocyanine green (ICG), and anticancer drug, doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX)-loaded thermo-responsive block copolymer capsule, in which the drug release can be controlled via NIR irradiation and folic acid (FA) molecule endows the drug carrier with the ability of targeted receptor-mediated endocytosis. After co-encapsulation of DOX and ICG, the capsule carrier exhibited wider NIR absorption peak and the loaded DOX was released rapidly from the capsules upon irradiation by NIR laser (808 nm). In addition, the results demonstrated that the FA modified capsule carrier exhibited the higher cytotoxicity to HeLa cells with NIR irradiation compared with other treatments, indicating the efficient chemo-photothermal targeted therapy.