Precise engineering of acorn-like Janus nanoparticles for cancer theranostics

The anisotropic Janus nanoparticles (JNPs) provide synergistic effects by concentrating multiple properties on a single carrier. Herein, we reported a novel and simple approach to fabricate acorn-like poly(acrylic acid)-mesoporous calcium phosphate/polydopamine (PAA-mCaP/PDA) JNPs, which were selectively functionalized with methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol)thiol (PEG-SH) on PDA domains to obtain superior stability, while the other mCaP sides served as a storage space and passage for the anti-cancer drug of doxorubicin (DOX). The unique acorn-like PAA-mCaP/PDA-PEG JNPs were utilized as novel theranostic agents for photoacoustic (PA) imaging-guided synergistic cancer chemo-phototherapy. More importantly, this synthetic strategy can be applied to synthesize various mesoporous Janus nanocarriers, paving the way toward designed synthesis of acorn-like JNPs in nanomedicine, biosensing and catalysis.