BSA-bioinspired gold nanorods loaded with immunoadjuvant for the treatment of melanoma by combined photothermal therapy and immunotherapy

Abstract

The development of therapeutic methods that can effectively delay tumor growth, inhibit tumor metastases, and protect the host from tumor recurrence still faces challenges. Nanoparticle-based combination therapy may provide an effective therapeutic strategy. Herein, we show that bovine serum albumin (BSA)-bioinspired gold nanorods (GNRs) were loaded with an immunoadjuvant for combined photothermal therapy (PTT) and immunotherapy for the treatment of melanoma. In this work, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-coated GNRs were successively decorated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and BSA, and loaded with an immunoadjuvant imiquimod (R837). The synthesized mPEG-GNRs@BSA/R837 nanocomplexes under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation could effectively kill tumors and trigger strong immune responses in treating metastatic melanoma in mice. Furthermore, the nanocomplex-based PTT prevented lung metastasis and induced a strong long-term antitumor immunity to protect the treated mice from tumor recurrence. The nanocomplex-based PTT in combination with immunotherapy may be potentially employed as an effective strategy for the treatment of melanoma and other metastatic cancers.

<p>Nanomaterial-Based Tumor Photothermal Immunotherapy</p>

“…As attractive photothermal agents, gold nanoparticles with different morphologies like GNRs, GNShs have been investigated combine with immunoadjuvants. Zhou et al 166 designed and synthesized GNRs based hybrid nanomaterial's mPEG-GNRs@BSA/R837 through functionalization of BSA-bioinspired GNRs with the imiquimod (R837, an FDA approved immunoadjuvant recognized by the tolllike receptor 7), to treat melanoma by PTT and immunotherapy. The mPEG-GNRs@BSA/R837 significantly increased the secretion levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-12 and the percentages of mature DCs also increased a lot (65.1%).…”

Immunological Consequences of Nanoparticle‐Mediated Antitumor Photoimmunotherapy

“…Table attempts to summarize the more combinatorial strategies explored so far by different investigators in achieving improve and long‐lasting therapeutic effects by combining PTT and immunotherapy.…”

CpG-coated prussian blue nanoparticles-based photothermal therapy combined with anti-CTLA-4 immune checkpoint blockade triggers a robust abscopal effect against neuroblastoma

“…Several reports have demonstrated the efficacy of combining nanoparticle-based PTT with checkpoint inhibitors to potentiate an abscopal and antitumor immune response mainly in 4T1 breast cancer models or B16F10 melanoma models. The checkpoint inhibitor aCTLA-4 has been combined with iron-oxide nanoparticles [ 20 ], single walled carbon nanotubes [ 5 ], and Prussian blue nanoparticles [ 7 ]; and the checkpoint inhibitor aPD-1/aPDL-1 has been combined with gold nanostars [ 21 ], gold nanorods [ 22 ], hollow gold nanoshells [ 23 , 24 ], iron oxide nanoparticles [ 12 ], iron oxide-perfluoropentane nanoparticles [ 25 ], black phosphorous quantum dots [ 26 ], and graphene oxide [ 27 ] for PTT. These studies highlight the efficacy of combining nanoparticle-based PTT with immunotherapies.…”