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The development of ultrasound-responsive microcapsule structures has resulted in several spatiotemporally controlled drug delivery systems for macromolecular cargoes, including proteins, nucleic acids, and even cells for biomedical applications. However, utilizing microcapsules to transport small molecular cargoes remains a challenge, because the leakage of drugs before ultrasound irradiation might cause side effects such as the undesired toxicity and the decrease of effective drug concentration at the target site. Herein, we present a novel strategy to tackle these shortcomings by employing nanodrugs which refers to nanoparticles coated with small molecule drugs. We showed that the drug leakage was prevented when encapsulating the nanodrug in microcapsules. Moreover, the fabricated drug delivery system was responsive not only to unfocused high-intensity ultrasound but also to the clinically relevant high-intensity focused ultrasound. Finally, as a proof of concept, we showed that the antibacterial activity of the nanodrug@Microcapsules could be activated by applying ultrasound in situ. These results may provide new insights into the development of ultrasound triggered small molecule drug delivery assisted by metallic nanoparticles.

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 27 June 2022
Revised: 09 August 2022
Accepted: 15 August 2022
Published: 03 November 2022
Issue date: February 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

A. H. gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Research Council through the Advanced Grant “Suprabiotics” (No. 694610). J. L. F. was supported by a CSC scholarship. M. J. X. thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a fellowship and financial support (No. 3.5-CHN-1210658-HFST-P). L. F. Z. acknowledges financial support from Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. WIUCASQD2020015). The authors would like to thank the DWI-Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials for support of this research. The authors thank Stefan Hauk for his help with the acquisition of SEM images.

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