Objective: Preventing exposure to hazardous drugs is crucial for healthcare workers to avoid health risks. To mitigate healthcare workers’ risks when handling hazardous drugs, we developed a novel closed-system drug-transfer device (CSTD) called CSTD(JLY). This CSTD has an automatic pressure-relief structure. Hence, it can significantly decrease the resistance in the push/pull of a piston rod if an operator transfers drugs, thereby reducing the burden on the hands of the operator during drug transfer.Methods: We investigated the closed performance of the novel CSTD (JLY) by comparing it with the performance of a syringe. We selected a simulation drug (fluorescein sodium), commonly used drugs (lansoprazole, nimodipine, and tropisetron), and a commonly used anti-cancer agent (cyclophosphamide) to conduct exposure evaluation.Results: Compared with a syringe, CSTD(JLY) could reduce drug leakage significantly. Our novel CSTD with an automatic pressure-relief structure had superior closed performance. CSTD(JLY) could solve the problem of liquid-drug leakage during drug transfer.Conclusion: This feature could reduce the exposure risk healthcare workers and patients.
Chemotherapy is an important modality available for cancer treatment. However, the present chemotherapy is still far from being satisfactory mainly owing to the severe side effects of the chemotherapeutic agents and drug resistance of cancer cells. Thus, reversing drug resistance by constructing an ideal chemotherapeutic strategy with the least side effects and the best efficacy is greatly needed. Here, we designed a smart nanosystem of thermo-sensitive liposome coated gold nanocages with doxorubicin (DOX) loading (LAD) for near-infrared (NIR)-triggered drug release and chemo-photothermal combination therapy. The biocompatible liposomes coating facilitated the cellular uptake of LAD and meanwhile avoided drug leakage during the circulation. More importantly, LAD exhibited controllable photothermal conversion property and produced mild heat under NIR irradiation, which not only triggered DOX release and transferred DOX from lysosome to nucleus, but also elicited the mild heat cell killing effect to improve the curative efficiency. Further mechanism study revealed that mild heat could reverse drug resistance by down-regulation of the chemoresistance-related markers ( e.g. , HSF-1, p53, P-gp), and inhibited DOX export and increased drug sensitiveness, thereby prominently increased the anticancer efficiency. This versatile nanoplatform with enhanced curative efficacy and lower side effect is promising to apply in the field of drug controlled release and combination tumor therapy.