In situ formation of metal organic framework onto gold nanorods/mesoporous silica with functional integration for targeted theranostics

•Metal organic framework is successfully integrated with core-shell structure.•The proposed strategy is applicable for core-shell MSNs with different cores.•GNRs-MSNs-MA shows excellent targeted ability for multifunctional theranostics.•GNRs-MSNs-MA possesses outstanding biocompatibility and favorable degradability. In this study, a facile strategy is reported to construct a multifunctional nanocarrier by in situ depositing metal organic framework (MOF) on core-shell gold nanorods-mesoporous silica nanoparticles (GNRs-MSNs). After further modification of hyaluronic acid (HA) on GNRs-MSNs-MOF, the obtained GNRs-MSNs-MA efficiently integrates targeted chemo-photothermal combination therapy and tri-modal magnetic resonance/computed tomography/photoacoustic (MR/CT/PA) imaging into a single platform. The proposed method is also applied to directly grow MOF shell onto core-shell structured MSNs with functional core of magnetic and upconverting nanoparticles. Specifically, GNRs-MSNs-MA exhibits the improved drug loading efficiency and near-infrared (NIR) laser-triggered drug release. The doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) loaded GNRs-MSNs-MA (DOX@GNRs-MSNs-MA) is demonstrated with excellent targeted ability toward cancer cells. Accordingly, upon NIR laser irradiation, DOX@GNRs-MSNs-MA also displays outstanding combined efficiency for killing the cancer cell in vitro and suppressing the tumor growth in vivo. The efficient in vivo MR/CT/PA imaging on tumor model is also confirmed. Overall, the fabrication of this multifunctional nanoplatform can provide some insights for integrating MOF with other nanocarriers to realize precise and efficient theranostics.