Immune remodeling triggered by photothermal therapy with semiconducting polymer nanoparticles in combination with chemotherapy to inhibit metastatic cancers
Yuming Yang, Minjie Xu, Zhe Wang, Yanqing Yang, Jie Liu, Qinglian Hu, Lin Li, Wei Huang
Abstract
at 808 nm), high photothermal conversion efficiency (62.5%) and excellent biocompatibility. A hypoxia-activated anti-tumor drug, tirapazamine (TPZ), was selected for chemotherapy. Strikingly, the combination therapy not only induced tumor cell death in the primary tumor, but also effectively suppressed the growth of distant tumors (mimicking metastatic tumors) without PTT. Importantly, the combined therapies exhibit synergistic effects on immune remodeling. Immunofluorescence data suggest that the inhibition of metastatic tumor growth is attributed to the immune remodeling triggered by PTT and chemotherapy. This work demonstrates a new paradigm of utilizing PTT together with hypoxia-activated drugs to effectively retard metastatic tumor growth.