Metallo-alginate hydrogel can potentiate microwave tumor ablation for synergistic cancer treatment

Abstract

Microwave ablation (MWA) as a local tumor ablation strategy suffers from posttreatment tumor recurrence. Development of adjuvant biomaterials to potentiate MWA is therefore of practical significance. Here, the high concentration of Ca 2+ fixed by alginate as Ca 2+ -surplus alginate hydrogel shows enhanced heating efficiency and restricted heating zone under microwave exposure. The high concentration of extracellular Ca 2+ synergizes with mild hyperthermia to induce immunogenic cell death by disrupting intracellular Ca 2+ homeostasis. Resultantly, Ca 2+ -surplus alginate hydrogel plus MWA can ablate different tumors on both mice and rabbits at reduced operation powers. This treatment can also elicit antitumor immunity, especially if synergized with Mn 2+ , an activator of the stimulation of interferon genes pathway, to suppress the growth of both untreated distant tumors and rechallenged tumors. This work highlights that in situ–formed metallo-alginate hydrogel could act as microwave-susceptible and immunostimulatory biomaterial to reinforce the MWA therapy, promising for clinical translation.

Metal ions and nanometallic materials in antitumor immunity: Function, application, and perspective

“…5 Reproduced with permission from [ 111 ] @Copyright 2022, Elsevier Ltd

Fig. 6 Reproduced with permission from [ 138 ] @Copyright 2022, American Association for the Advancement of Science

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“… Reproduced with permission from [ 138 ] @Copyright 2022, American Association for the Advancement of Science …”

Preparation and Characterization of Alginate Hydrogel Fibers Reinforced by Cotton for Biomedical Applications

“…Chitosan [ 12 ], alginate [ 13 ], and poly(ethylene glycol) fibrinogen [ 14 ] produce chemical networks in hydrogels while aminated hyaluronic acid [ 15 ] and collagen [ 16 ] can produce physical networks in hydrogels. Among all available materials, alginate is an excellent crosslinking material obtained from seaweeds and is widely used in food processing, pharmaceuticals [ 17 ], paper formation, and textiles [ 18 ]. Alginate is biocompatible and has very low toxicity making it suitable material for biomedical applications [ 19 ].…”

Prodrug and Glucose Oxidase Coloaded Photodynamic Hydrogels for Combinational Therapy of Melanoma

“…37−40 Especially, alginate (ALG)-based hydrogels can be in situ formed in tumor tissues after the injection of solutions via coordination by intratumoral Ca 2+ , in which physical cross-linking is avoidable to ensure the simple operability. 41 Although ALG hydrogels have been used for different cancer therapies, such as immunotherapy, PDT, photothermal therapy, sonodynamic therapy, and combinational therapy, 42−47 their uses for hypoxia-responsive PDT-combined chemotherapy has been poorly explored.…”

“…Although nanosystems have been widely used for this purpose, the poor accumulation efficacy of nanoparticles in tumor sites still greatly obstructs their applications . In contrast, hydrogels are another type of drug delivery systems that can achieve local release of therapeutic agents in the target tumor sites. − Especially, alginate (ALG)-based hydrogels can be in situ formed in tumor tissues after the injection of solutions via coordination by intratumoral Ca 2+ , in which physical cross-linking is avoidable to ensure the simple operability . Although ALG hydrogels have been used for different cancer therapies, such as immunotherapy, PDT, photothermal therapy, sonodynamic therapy, and combinational therapy, − their uses for hypoxia-responsive PDT-combined chemotherapy has been poorly explored.…”