Human CIK Cells Loaded with Au Nanorods as a Theranostic Platform for Targeted Photoacoustic Imaging and Enhanced Immunotherapy and Photothermal Therapy

Abstract

How to realize targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy of gastric cancer has become a great challenge. Herein, we reported for the first time that human cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) loaded with gold nanorods were used for targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy of gastric cancer. Silica-modified gold nanorods were prepared; then incubated with human cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK), resultant human CIK cells loaded with Au nanorods were evaluated for their cytotoxicity, targeted ability of gastric cancer in vitro and in vivo, immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy efficacy. In vitro cell experiment shows that human CIK cells labeled with gold nanorods actively target gastric cancer MGC803 cells, inhibit growth of MGC803 cells by inducing cell apoptosis, and kill MGC803 cells under low power density near-infrared (NIR) laser treatment (808-nm continuous wave laser, 1.5 W/cm2, 3 min). In vivo experiment results showed that human CIK cells labeled with gold nanorods could target actively and image subcutaneous gastric cancer vessels via photoacoustic imaging at 4 h post-injection, could enhance immunotherapy efficacy by up-regulating cytokines such as IL-1, IL-12, IL-2, IL-4, IL-17, and IFN-γ, and kill gastric cancer tissues by photothermal therapy via direct injection into tumor site under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. High-performance human CIK cells labeled with Au nanorods are a good novel theranostic platform to exhibit great potential in applications such as tumor-targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy in the near future.

Tailoring Nanostructure Morphology for Enhanced Targeting of Dendritic Cells in Atherosclerosis

“…Enhanced targeting of specific MPS subsets by nanomaterials may decrease off-target effects of drug therapy, improve targeted immunotherapy, and offer treatments for inflammation-driven pathologies like cardiovascular disease (CVD). 10–13 …”

Human CIK Cells Loaded with Gold Nanoprisms as Theranostic Platform for Targeted Photoacoustic Imaging and Enhanced Immuno-Photothermal Combined Therapy

“…Human CIK cells were expanded from peripheral blood collected from the healthy people in our Laboratory [17]- [22]. All individuals provided informed consent for blood donation according to a protocol approved by the internal review board and ethic committee.…”

“…Some reports show that human CIK cells can target in vivo tumor tissues [17]- [22]. However, a lot of reports showed that CIK cells kill tumor cells via releasing some special factors [47,48].…”

“…And the targeting characteristic of CIK cells has an extensive adaptability feature, which can be applied to clinical therapies of many kinds of cancers. However, up to date, few reports have demonstrated that tumor patients with middle and late stages can be cured completely by using DCs and CIK immunotherapies [17]- [22]. How to enhance CIK therapeutic effects has become a challengeable problem.…”

Cancer Nano-Immunoengineering: The Marriage of Immunoengineering and Nanotechnology for Cancer Therapy

“…For example, human CIK cells labeled with gold nanorods were used for photothermal-immunological combined therapy of in vivo gastric cancer models, and maximal tumor growth inhibition was achieved. The fact highly suggests that available nanotechnology can be used for enhanced immunotherapeutic efficacy [4]. Cancer nanotechnology or cancer nanomedicine has provided a practical solution for overcoming the limitations of traditional immunotherapy.…”