Biocompatible and Biodegradable Nanocarriers for Targeted Drug Delivery in Precision Medicine

Despite the promising natural origin, biocompatibility, and biodegradability of chitosan for biomedical applications, developing biodegradable nanocarriers with controllable sizes and precise drug delivery targeting remains a significant challenge, hindering its integration into precision medicine. To address this, we synthesized gold nanocage (AuNCs)/poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-carboxymethyl chitosan) core-shell multifunctional composite nanospheres (CPAu) through a two-step one-pot method. The resulting CPAu nanospheres (~146 nm in size) exhibited multi-sensitive release properties, excellent biocompatibility, and potent photothermal therapy (PTT) activity. These nanospheres effectively encapsulated diverse antitumor drugs while demonstrating triple responsiveness (thermo-, reduction-, and PTT-triggered) for targeted tumor cell delivery, thereby achieving enhanced antitumor efficacy in combinatorial chemotherapy.