Preparation of human serum albumin-doxorubicin modified carbon nanotubes mediated combined photothermal and chemotherapeutic strategies in melanoma application

Melanoma is an aggressive malignancy that requires novel treatment strategies. Herein, we developed a multi-walled carbon nanotube-based nanoplatform (MWCNTs/HSA-DOX) co-loaded with human serum albumin and doxorubicin for combinatorial therapy. The nanocomplexes served as highly effective photothermal agents, elevating the temperature to 52.8 °C upon NIR irradiation, and also displayed pH-sensitive drug release. In vitro studies against B16F10 melanoma cells demonstrated potent synergistic effects: the system achieved significant cell killing (viability <50% at 50 μg/mL) and promoted marked apoptosis, as evidenced by the profound upregulation of key pro-apoptotic proteins (caspase-3: 1.85-fold; Bax: 2.26-fold) and downregulation of Bcl-2 (0.44-fold). Our work highlights MWCNTs/HSA-DOX as a promising nanomedicine that successfully integrates photothermal ablation with controlled chemotherapy to trigger enhanced apoptotic death in melanoma cells.