Photothermal therapy (PTT) and
photodynamic therapy (
PDT) have emerged as highly prospective therapeutic modalities in
cancer therapy. Notwithstanding, a critical challenge still remains in the exploration of an effective strategy to maximize the synergistic efficacy of PTT and
PDT due to low photoconversion efficiency. Herein, inspired by the
phospholipid bimolecular structure of the cell membrane, bionic cell membrane polymeric vesicles with photothermal/photodynamic synergy for
prostate cancer therapy at one wavelength's excitation are constructed in one step by the coordination of
hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (
CTAB) from the surface of hydrophobic
gold nanorods (AuNRs) with
indocyanine green (ICG) and
polycaprolactone (PCL), achieving their self-assembly in aqueous solutions. Importantly, the aggregation of the assembly improves the stability of the vesicles, realizing the synergistic effect of PTT and
PDT for
prostate cancer therapy. After being assembled within polymeric vesicles, bifunctional
photosensitizer ICG can generate
reactive oxygen species (ROS) and photothermal effect under light treatment. Their ROS not only induce
PDT efficacy but also destroy the integrity of the lysosomal membrane, promoting the translocation of ICG and another
photosensitizer called
gold nanorods (AuNRs) into the cytosol. Moreover, their photothermal effects produced by both
photosensitizers are able to engender greater damage to the
tumor cells because of the close distance with organelles. This structure manifests good cellular uptake, highly effective
tumor accumulation, high photothermal conversion efficiency, and excellent properties of enhanced photobleaching resistance, which are beneficial to ICG-based fluorescence
tumor imaging. Using the same near-infrared (NIR) wavelength for excitation, the AuNR/ICG vesicles can reduce the side effect rate of photodamage on the skin. In addition, by generating
reactive oxygen species (ROS) and double photothermal effect, the vesicles under NIR excitation can promote the apoptosis of PC3
tumor cells. Taken together, the spontaneous self-assembled AuNR/ICG vesicles exhibit huge potential in advanced-stage
prostate cancer therapy, especially for the prostate-specific membrane
antigen (PSMA)-negative
castration-resistant subtype.