| May 30, 2022 |
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(Nanowerk News) Cancer immunotherapy is a treatment modality against tumor growth and metastasis by stimulating host immune responses. Phototherapy, including photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), is a less invasive treatment compared with chemotherapy. To be specific, PDT and PTT-induced immunogenic cell death can release tumor-associated antigens and damage-associated molecular patterns, stimulating an immune response.
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Photo-immunotherapy, the combination of phototherapy and immunotherapy, can effectively enhance treatment effectiveness compared with a single treatment modality. Up to now, the multifunctional photo-immune system is still in its infancy. Hence, the development of a multifunctional and safe photo-immunotherapy system for efficient tumor treatment is urgently needed.
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DONG Wenfei’s group from the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (SIBET) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently developed a multifunctional nanoplatform based on mesoporous hexagonal core-shell zinc porphyrin-silica nanoparticles (MPSNs) loaded with R837 (a toll-like receptor-7 agonist), which can be used to integrate PDT, PTT, and tumor-specific immunotherapy for breast cancer (Journal of Nanobiotechnology, “Light-triggered multifunctional nanoplatform for efficient cancer photo-immunotherapy”).
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| Schematic diagram of nanomaterials for photoimmunotherapy of breast cancer. (Image: SIBET)
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According to the researchers, MPSNs with zinc phosphide (ZnP) as the core and a mesoporous silica framework as the shell could effectively generate singlet oxygen and convert photons to heat with a single light source.
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Meanwhile, the excellent mesoporous structure of the silica shell can facilitate efficient R837 loading. Consequently, the therapeutic strategy based on [email protected] not only eradicated primary tumors via phototherapy modalities (PDT and PTT), but also effectively inhibited distant metastasis due to the strong immune response triggered by the two-way mechanistic interaction.
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