Fig. 10

a Schematic illustration of the preparation and optimization of polycation–carbon nanohybrids with different morphologies (HNS, YSNP, BNP, and RHNS) for the NIR-II-responsive multimodal therapy. b TEM images of HNS (a′), YSNP (b′), BNP (c′), and RHNS (d′) (scale bar: 150 nm). c Representative fluorescence images of the EGFP expression of 4T1 cells treated with YSNP-PGEA, BNP-PGEA, and RHNS-PGEA/pDNA complexes at their optimal w/w ratio of 30 and CD-PGEA/pDNA at the optimal N/P ratio of 20. d In vitro luciferase expression of HNS-PGEA, YSNP-PGEA, BNP-PGEA, and RHNS-PGEA/pDNA complexes at various w/w ratios, in comparison with those of PEI (25 kDa) and CD-PGEA/pDNA complexes. e Cell proliferation of 4T1 cells treated with CD-PGEA, YSNP-PGEA, BNP-PGEA, and RHNS-PGEA/p53 complexes at 48 and 24/48/72 h, respectively. f Western blot analysis of the P53 expression in 4T1 cells after transfection with RHNS-PGEA/p53 complexes for 48 h. g Infrared thermal images of 4T1 tumor-bearing mice injected with PBS and RHNS-PGEA under laser irradiation. h PA images of 4T1 tumor-bearing mice before and at different time points after injection with RHNS-PGEA, where tumor regions are highlighted using white dashed circles. i Vis-NIR absorbance spectrum of the RHNS-PGEA solution (0.1 mg/mL). j Photothermal effect and cooling process of RHNS-PGEA in aqueous solution (Abs = 0.729 at 1064 nm) under 1064 nm laser irradiation (0.5 W cm^–2). k Cumulative CPT release profile of CPT-RHNS-PGEA under laser irradiation at predetermined intervals. l 4T1 tumor growth curves of mice after various treatments. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [110]. Copyright 2022, American Chemical Society