An in situ nanoparticle recombinant strategy for the enhancement of photothermal therapy

Abstract

Photothermal therapy (PTT)-induced immune response has attracted much attention, however, which cannot work at full capacity. In this study, the simvastatin (SV) adjuvant is loaded into gold nanocages (AuNCs) to develop a simple drug delivery system, which can efficiently utilize the tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) for improving immune responses. AuNCs/SV-mediated PTT treatment enhances tumor cells damage and promotes the release of TAAs which are immediately captured by AuNCs/SV to form AuNCs/SV/TAAs recombinant nanoparticle. Impressively, AuNCs/SV/TAAs can accumulate in lymph nodes effectively due to the suitable size of ~55 nm and hyperthermia-induced vasodilative effect. And the co-delivery of antigen and adjuvant is beneficial to stimulating the maturation of dendritic cells for further activating T cells. In a word, the recombinant strategy could make full use of TAAs to produce an individual powerful immunotherapy.