Biomolecules-assisted synthesis of degradable bismuth nanoparticles for dual-modal imaging-guided chemo-photothermal therapy

[Display omitted] •The green biomolecules-mediated strategy was used to synthesize BGPs.•The BGPs own good biocompatibility, high reproducibility and strong stability.•The BGPs can be degraded in tumor microenvironment to minimize toxicity in vivo.•The DOX-BGPs can achieve imaging-guided chemo-photothermal synergistic therapy. To avoid toxicity of multifunctional nanomaterials in bioapplication, the biodegradable inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) must be our main focus. In the work, we firstly developed green biomolecules-mediated bismuth (Bi) NPs based on single-step reduction reaction in aqueous phase, which could be degraded in the tumor microenvironment. Various biomolecules including gelatin (GEL), bovine serum albumin (BSA) or human serum albumin (HAS) were investigated to fabricate Bi@GEL, Bi@BSA or Bi@HSA NPs (BGPs, BBPs or BHPs). Moreover, the experimental explorations further confirmed that the BGPs owned multiple optimal features such as X-ray computed tomography (CT) and infrared thermal (IRT) imaging capacities, drug loading and pH/NIR-responsive drug release abilities as well as antitumor effects of synergistic chemo-photothermal therapy (CPTT). Our work provides a new pH-responsive biodegradable inorganic nanomaterial for versatile cancer theranostics.