Despite the development of medical technology, cancer still remains a great threat to the survival of people all over the world. Photothermal therapy (PTT) is a minimally invasive method for selective photothermal ablation of cancer cells without damages to normal cells. Recently, copper chalcogenide semiconductors have emerged as a promising photothermal agent attributed to strong absorbance in the near-infrared (NIR) region and high photothermal conversion efficiency. An earlier study witnessed a rapid increase in their development for cancer therapy, including CuS, CuSe and CuTe nanocrystals. However, a barrier is that the minimum laser power intensity for effective PTT is still significantly higher than the conservative limit for human skin exposure. Improving the photothermal conversion efficiency and reducing the laser power density has become a direction for the development of PTT. Furthermore, in an effort to improve the therapeutic efficacy, many multimode therapeutic nanostuctures have been formulated by integrating the photothermal agents with antitumor drugs, photosensitizers, or radiosensitizers, resulting in a synergistic effect. Various functional materials also have been absorbed, attached, encapsulated, or coated on the photothermal nanostructures, including fluorescence, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, realizing cancer diagnosis, tumor location, site-specific therapy, and evaluation of therapeutic responses via incorporation of diagnosis and treatment. In this Account, we present an overview of the NIR-responsive photothermal semiconductor nanomaterials for cancer theranostics with a focus on their design and functionalization based on our own work. Our group has developed a series of chalcogenides with greatly improved NIR photoabsorption as photothermal agents, allowing laser exposure within regulatory limits. We also investigated the photothermal bioapplications of hypotoxic oxides including WO, MoO, and RuO, expanding their applications into a new field of photothermal materials. Furthermore, considering a much more enhanced therapeutic effect of multifunctional nanoagents, our group elaborately designed many nanocomposites, such as core-shell nanoparticles of FeO@CuS and CuS@mSiO, based on the integration of photothermal agents with contrast agents or other anticancer medicines, achieving cancer theranostic and synergistic treatment. Ternary compound nanocrystals were also prepared with synthetic simplicity for multimodal imaging-guided therapy for cancer. This Account summarizes our past work, including the design and concept, synthesis, and characterization for in vitro and in vivo applications. Then, we analyzed the tendencies of the NIR-responsive photothermal semiconductor nanomaterials for clinical applications, highlighting their prospects and challenges. We believe that the photothermal technology from the NIR-responsive photothermal semiconductor nanomaterials would promote cancer theranostics to result in giant strides forward in the future.

Background The extracellular matrix (ECM) is essential for malignant tumour progression, as it is a physical barrier to various kinds of anticancer therapies. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) can degrade almost all ECM components, and macrophages are an important source of MMPs. Studies using macrophages to treat tumours have shown that macrophages can enter tumour tissue to play a regulatory role. Methods We modified macrophages with a designed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), which could be activated after recognition of the tumour antigen HER2 to trigger the internal signalling of CD147 and increase the expression of MMPs. Results Although CAR-147 macrophage treatment did not affect tumour cell growth in vitro compared with control treatment. However, we found that the infusion of CAR-147 macrophages significantly inhibited HER2-4T1 tumour growth in BALB/c mice. Further investigation showed that CAR-147 macrophages could reduce tumour collagen deposition and promote T-cell infiltration into tumours, which were consistent with expectations. Interestingly, the levels of the inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6, which are key factors in cytokine release syndrome, were significantly decreased in the peripheral blood in CAR-147 macrophage-transfused mice. Conclusion Our data suggest that targeting the ECM by engineered macrophages would be an effective treatment strategy for solid tumours.

As the world's population ages, falls, physical inactivity, decreased attention and impairments in balance and gait arise as a consequence of decreased sensation, weakness, trauma and degenerative disease. Progressive balance and gait training can facilitate postural righting, safe ambulation and community participation. This small randomized clinical trial evaluated if visual and kinematic feedback provided during supervised gait training would interfere or enhance mobility, endurance, balance, strength and flexibility in older individuals greater than one year post stroke (Gobbi et al., 2009) or Parkinson's disease (PD) (Gobbi et al., 2009). Twenty-four individuals consented to participate. The participants were stratified by diagnosis and randomly assigned to a control (usual gait training (Gobbi et al., 2009)) or an experimental group (usual gait training plus kinematic feedback (Gobbi et al., 2009)). At baseline and 6 weeks post training (18 h), subjects completed standardized tests (mobility, balance, strength, range of motion). Gains were described across all subjects, by treatment group and by diagnosis. Then they were compared for significance using nonparametric statistics. Twenty-three subjects completed the study with no adverse events. Across all subjects, by diagnosis (stroke and PD) and by training group (control and experimental), there were significant gains in mobility (gait speed, step length, endurance, and quality), balance (Berg Balance), range of motion and strength. There were no significant differences in the gain scores between the control and experimental groups. Subjects chronic post stroke made greater strength gains on the affected side than subjects with PD but otherwise there were no significant differences. In summary, during supervised gait training, dynamic visual kinematic feedback from wireless pressure and motion sensors had similar, positive effects as verbal, therapist feedback. A wireless kinematic feedback system could be used at home, to provide feedback and motivation for self correction of gait while simultaneously providing data to the therapist (at a distance).

To assess the association of the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) with cisplatin‐based neo‐adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) response, we investigated the level of PD‐L1 and found increased PD‐L1 expression in chemo‐resistant tumors compared with chemo‐sensitive tumors according to RNA‐Seq analysis. In a cohort of 92 patients with NAC, the positive staining of PD‐L1 was correlated with TNM stage, lower sensitive‐response rates and shorter overall survival rates. In another 30 paired tumor specimens pre‐ and post‐chemotherapy, the patients with high PD‐L1 expression post‐chemotherapy had a worse outcome and higher stable disease rate. CD8+ tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes were found to be related to chemosensitive response and better prognosis and negative PD‐L1 expression. Furthermore, in two patient‐derived xenograft models and cell lines A549 and PC‐9, cisplatin upregulated PD‐L1 expression, and the enhancement of PD‐L1 in cancer cell lines was in a drug dose‐dependent manner. Moreover, the depletion of PD‐L1 significantly reduced cisplatin resistance. When phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase/protein kinase B signaling was inhibited by corresponding inhibitors, PD‐L1 expression was downregulated and apoptosis was upregulated in the cisplatin‐treated cancer cells. These results suggest that the upregulation of PD‐L1 promotes a resistance response in lung cancer cells that might be through activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase/protein kinase B pathway and suppression of tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes. The high expression of PD‐L1 after NAC could be an indication of therapeutic resistance and poor prognosis in patients with non‐small‐cell lung cancer.