Cationic poly(e-caprolactone) nanoparticles as versatile scaffolds for combining photo/chemotherapy in cancer

Cationic nanoparticles (NPs) are at limelight in the field of cancer nanotechnology due to their unique ability to penetrate deeply inside tumor tissue. Coupling chemotherapy with photodynamic therapy (PDT) is nowadays opening intriguing horizons towards new and still underexplored multimodal therapies of cancer. So we try to delivery cationic NPs as versatile scaffolds. As active drug cargo, the lipophilic anticancer drug Docetaxel (DTX) was entrapped in the NP core whereas anionic tetrasulfonate photosensitizers, i.e. porphyrin (TPPS4) or phthalocyanine (ZnPcS4), were adsorbed on the surface. NPs are finallyecorated with hyaluronic acid (HA) to encurage NP accumulation in CD44 overexpressing cancer cells.