Local tumour nanoparticle thermal therapy: A promising immunomodulatory treatment for canine cancer

Targeted nanotherapy platform mediated tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cell immune function effects for collaborative anti-tumor photothermal immunotherapy for cervical cancer

Photothermal immunotherapy is an innovative approach to cancer treatment. It combines immunomodulators and photothermal agents, both targeted to the tumor site. This therapy harnesses the heat generated by photothermal conversion to damage tumor cells while simultaneously releasing tumor-associated antigens. This process enhances the anti-tumor immune response of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Photothermal immunotherapy is gaining prominence as a new method for cancer treatment. It is a current focal point in research due to its targeted efficacy, minimal systemic side effects, and reduced risk of treatment resistance. This study employed a thin-film dispersion method to fabricate liposomes (LIPO) as composite drug carriers. Indocyanine green (ICG) for clinical use was utilized as a photothermal agent (PTA), and folate (FA) was employed as a targeting agent for the nano-composite material. We encapsulated the immunoadjuvant CpG ODN within the FA@LIPO@ICG nano-system, resulting in the formation of targeted nanoparticles (NPs) for photothermal immunotherapy (FA@LIPO@ICG@CpG), and assessed the drug encapsulation rate. FA@LIPO@ICG@CpG NPs demonstrated excellent water solubility with an average size ranging from 100 to 200 nm. Furthermore, we investigated the photothermal properties of FA@LIPO@ICG@CpG NPs. Under 808 nm laser irradiation, the photothermal conversion efficiency of FA@LIPO@ICG@CpG NPs reached 39.05%. Subsequently, under 808 nm laser excitation, we conducted an analysis of lymphocyte subpopulations and their functional changes in U14 tumor-bearing mice by using flow cytometry. This treatment approach demonstrated remarkable anti-tumor efficacy. Consequently, FA@LIPO@ICG@CpG NPs hold substantial promise as a novel and promising strategy in cancer therapy.

Cancer Immunotherapy

The enhanced understanding of immunology experienced over the last 5 decades afforded through the tools of molecular biology has recently translated into cancer immunotherapy becoming one of the most exciting and rapidly expanding fields. Human cancer immunotherapy is now recognized as one of the pillars of treatment alongside surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The field of veterinary cancer immunotherapy has also rapidly advanced in the last decade with a handful of commercially available products and a plethora of investigational cancer immunotherapies, which will hopefully expand our veterinary oncology treatment toolkit over time.

Photonic Hyperthermia Synergizes with Immune-Activators to Augment Tumor-Localized Immunotherapy

Photothermal immunotherapy, the combination of photothermal hyperthermia and immunotherapy, is a noninvasive and desirable therapeutic strategy to address the deficiency of traditional photothermal ablation for tumor treatment. However, insufficient T-cell activation following photothermal treatment is a bottleneck to achieve satisfactory therapeutic effectiveness. In this work, a multifunctional nanoplatform is rationally designed and engineered on the basis of polypyrrole-based magnetic nanomedicine modified by T-cell activators of anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 monoclonal antibodies, which have achieved robust near infrared laser-triggered photothermal ablation and long-lasting T-cell activation, realizing diagnostic imaging-guided immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment regulation following photothermal hyperthermia by reinvigorating tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. By virtue of high-efficient immunogenic cell death and dendritic cell maturation combined with T-cell activation, this nanosystem markedly restrains primary and abscopal tumors as well as metastatic tumors with negligible side effects in vivo, exerting the specific function for suppressing tumor recurrence and metastasis by establishing a long-term memory immune response.