Nanostructures as Photothermal Agents in Tumor Treatment

Abstract

Traditional methods of tumor treatment such as surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy have certain limitations, and their treatment effects are not always satisfactory. As a new tumor treatment method, photothermal therapy based on nanostructures has attracted the attention of researchers due to its characteristics of minimally invasive, low side effects, and inhibition of cancer metastasis. In recent years, there has been a variety of inorganic or organic nanostructures used in the field of photothermal tumor treatment, and they have shown great application prospects. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of nanomaterials/nanostructures as photothermal agents (PTAs) for photothermal therapy as well as their research progress are reviewed. For the sake of clarity, the recently reported nanomaterials/nanostructures for photothermal therapy of tumor are classified into five main categories, i.e., carbon nanostructures, noble metal nanostructures, transition metal sulfides, organic polymer, and other nanostructures. In addition, future perspectives or challenges in the related field are discussed.

Black TiO2-based nanoparticles as Toll-like receptor stimulator delivery system for enhanced photothermal-immunotherapy of pancreatic cancer

“…A study on the photothermal-immunotherapy of pancreatic cancer by direct laser and GC as immunologic adjuvant has been reported to successfully inhibit tumor growth, recurrence and metastasis (Zhou et al 2018a, b). However, compared to direct laser, due to the high permeability and retention effect of solid tumors, NPs as photothermal agents can accumulate in the tumor site and reduce the distribution in normal tissues, forming a temperature gradient between the tumor tissues and the normal tissues, which ensures that reduce the damage of tumor to surrounding normal tissue during PTT (Chen et al 2022). At the same time, the use of photothermal agents can also reduce the power density and time of laser.…”

De novo design of a nanoregulator for the dynamic restoration of ovarian tissue in cryopreservation and transplantation

“…These inorganic nanoparticles find prominent utility as biosensors or diagnostic imaging tools, contribute to antibacterial and antiviral therapies, facilitate thermotherapy, and serve as integral components in drug delivery optimization by functioning as carriers [ 105 – 109 ]. The strong variability in the size, shape, and structure of inorganic nanoregulators, coupled with their unique optical, electrical, and magnetic properties, underscores their versatility.…”

Bionic nanotheranostic for multimodal imaging-guided NIR-II-photothermal cancer therapy

“…20 Photothermal agents consist primarily of inorganic and organic reagents. 21,22 Inorganic photothermal reagents mainly include precious metal materials such as Au NPs, metal sulfides such as copper sulfide, 23,24 and carbon-based nanomaterials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. 25 Representative two-dimensional materials include black phosphorus and nanosheets.…”