HO-independent Chemodynamic Therapy Initiated from Magnetic Iron Carbide Nanoparticle-assisted Artemisinin Synergy

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) is a booming technology that utilizes Fenton reagents to kill tumor cells by transforming intracellular HO into reactive oxygen species (ROS), but insufficient endogenous HO makes it difficult to attain satisfactory antitumor results. In this article, a HO-free CDT technique with tumor-specificity is developed by using pH-sensitive magnetic iron carbide nanoparticles (PEG/FeC@FeO NPs) to trigger artemisinin (ART) to form ROS. ART-loaded PEG/FeC@FeO NPs are fabricated for the enormous release of Fe ions induced by the acidic conditions of the tumor microenvironment after magnetic-assisted tumor enrichment, which results in the rapid degradation of the PEG/FeC@FeO NPs and release of ART once endocytosed into tumor cells. catalysis reaction between the co-released Fe ions and ART generates toxic ROS and then induces apoptosis of tumor cells. Both and experiments demonstrate that the efficient Fe-enhanced and tumor-specific CDT efficacy for effective tumor inhibition based on ROS generation. This work provides a new direction to improve CDT efficacy based on HO-independent ROS generation.