Near-infrared plasmonic nanoparticles demonstrate great potential in disease theranostic applications. Herein a nanoplatform, composed of mesoporous silica-coated gold nanorods (AuNRs), is tailor-designed to optimize the photodynamic therapy (PDT) for tumor based on the plasmonic effect. The surface plasmon resonance of AuNRs was fine-tuned to overlap with the exciton absorption of indocyanine green (ICG), a near-infrared photodynamic dye with poor photostability and low quantum yield. Such overlap greatly increases the singlet oxygen yield of incorporated ICG by maximizing the local field enhancement, and protecting the ICG molecules against photodegradation by virtue of the high absorption cross section of the AuNRs. The silica shell strongly increased ICG payload with the additional benefit of enhancing ICG photostability by facilitating the formation of ICG aggregates. As-fabricated AuNR@SiO2-ICG nanoplatform enables trimodal imaging, near-infrared fluorescence from ICG, and two-photon luminescence/photoacoustic tomography from the AuNRs. The integrated strategy significantly improved photodynamic destruction of breast tumor cells and inhibited the growth of orthotopic breast tumors in mice, with mild laser irradiation, through a synergistic effect of PDT and photothermal therapy. Our study highlights the effect of local field enhancement in PDT and demonstrates the importance of systematic design of nanoplatform to greatly enhancing the antitumor efficacy.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is characterised by a dense desmoplastic stroma composed of stromal cells and extracellular matrix (ECM). This barrier severely impairs drug delivery and penetration. Activated pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) play a key role in establishing this unique pathological obstacle, but also offer a potential target for anti-tumour therapy. Here, we construct a tumour microenvironment-responsive nanosystem, based on PEGylated polyethylenimine-coated gold nanoparticles, and utilise it to co-deliver all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA, an inducer of PSC quiescence) and siRNA targeting heat shock protein 47 (HSP47, a collagen-specific molecular chaperone) to re-educate PSCs. The nanosystem simultaneously induces PSC quiescence and inhibits ECM hyperplasia, thereby promoting drug delivery to pancreatic tumours and significantly enhancing the anti-tumour efficacy of chemotherapeutics. Our combination strategy to restore homoeostatic stromal function by targeting activated PSCs represents a promising approach to improving the efficacy of chemotherapy and other therapeutic modalities in a wide range of stroma-rich tumours.
An effective tumor vaccine vector that can rapidly display neoantigens is urgently needed. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) can strongly activate the innate immune system and are qualified as immunoadjuvants. Here, we describe a versatile OMV-based vaccine platform to elicit a specific anti-tumor immune response via specifically presenting antigens onto OMV surface. We first display tumor antigens on the OMVs surface by fusing with ClyA protein, and then simplify the antigen display process by employing a Plug-and-Display system comprising the tag/catcher protein pairs. OMVs decorated with different protein catchers can simultaneously display multiple, distinct tumor antigens to elicit a synergistic antitumour immune response. In addition, the bioengineered OMVs loaded with different tumor antigens can abrogate lung melanoma metastasis and inhibit subcutaneous colorectal cancer growth. The ability of the bioengineered OMV-based platform to rapidly and simultaneously display antigens may facilitate the development of these agents for personalized tumour vaccines.
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