Second Near-Infrared Photothermal Semiconducting Polymer Nanoadjuvant for Enhanced Cancer Immunotherapy.

Li, Jingchao; Yu, Xiangrong; Jiang, Yuyan; He, Shasha; Zhang, Yan; Luo, Yu; Pu, Kanyi · Adv Mater · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Immunotherapy has offered new treatment options for cancer; however, the therapeutic benefits are often modest and desired to be improved. A semiconducting polymer nanoadjuvant (SPN<sub>II</sub> R) with a photothermally triggered cargo release for second near-infrared (NIR-II) photothermal immunotherapy is reported here. SPN<sub>II</sub> R consists of a semiconducting polymer nanoparticle core as an NIR-II photothermal converter, which is doped with a toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist as an immunotherapy adjuvant and coated with a thermally responsive lipid shell. Upon NIR-II photoirradiation, SPN<sub>II</sub> R effectively generates heat not only to ablate tumors and induce immunogenic cell death (ICD), but also to melt the lipid layers for on-demand release of the TLR agonist. The combination of ICD and activation of TLR7/TLR8 enhances the maturation of dendritic cells, which amplifies anti-tumor immune responses. Thus, a single treatment of SPN<sub>II</sub> R-mediated NIR-II photothermal immunotherapy effectively inhibits growth of both primary and distant tumors and eliminates lung metastasis in a murine mouse model. This study thus provides a remote-controlled smart delivery system to synergize photomedicine with immunotherapy for enhanced cancer treatment.

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