Destruction of hypoxic regions within tumors, virtually inaccessible to cancer therapies, may well prevent malignant progression. The tumor's recruitment of monocytes into these regions may be exploited for nanoparticle-based delivery. Monocytes containing therapeutic nanoparticles could serve as "Trojan Horses" for nanoparticle transport into these tumor regions. Here we report the demonstration of several key steps toward this therapeutic strategy: phagocytosis of Au nanoshells, and photoinduced cell death of monocytes/macrophages as isolates and within tumor spheroids.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.