Combination of chemotherapy and photothermal methods for in vitro ablation of MCF-7 cancer cells using crinkly core–shell structure MoS2/C@SiO2 nanospheres

MoS 2 /C@SiO 2 spheres were successfully synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method using silica as the template, sodium molybdate as the Mo source and glucose as the carbon precursor. In this paper, the antitumor ability of MoS 2 /C@SiO 2 and C@SiO 2 nanospheres was evaluated through the photothermal effect induced by near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and the drug loading and release behaviors of the model drug doxorubicin (DOX). The photothermal conversion efficiency (η) of MoS 2 /C@SiO 2 of 42.5% was 1.2 times that of C@SiO 2 (34.7%), which indicated its significant photothermal effect. The drug loading of MoS 2 /C@SiO 2 of 46.5% was much higher than that of C@SiO 2 (12.4%); it was 3.75 times that of C@SiO 2 . The cumulative drug release of MoS 2 /C@SiO 2 and C@SiO 2 under a simulated acidic tumor environment and NIR irradiation was 58.9% and 27.29%, respectively. Moreover, the cell viability assays verified that MoS 2 /C@SiO 2 -DOX had excellent antitumor ability under the co-stimulation of endogenous (pH) and exogenous (NIR) compared with C@SiO 2 -DOX. The experimental results showed that the survival rate of cancer cells in MoS 2 /C@SiO 2 -DOX under coordinated treatment was only 19.4%, while that of C@SiO 2 -DOX was 24.6%.