Dye-enhanced selective photothermal laser-tissue interaction and photodynamic therapy in combination with immunoadjuvant for cancer treatment

Abstract

Immunoadjuvants have been used to stimulate host immune responses. However, immunoadjuvants alone have not been very successful in treating metastatic tumors. Following the principle of combined therapy in AIDS treatment and in combination chemotherapy, immunoadjuvants have been used in conjunction with other treatment modalities. The current study is an attempt to use both selective photothermal and selective photochemical interactions to accompany a new immunoadjuvant in the treatment of metastatic tumors. The immunoadjuvant, glycated chitosan (GC), has been shown in the previous studies to be effective in inducing immune responses when combined with the treatment of laser irradiation after the intratumoral injection of indocyanine green solution. When glycated chitosan was used with photodynamic therapy (PDT), the treatment effect was significantly increased. Specifically, when glycated chitosan was injected peritumorally after Photofrin-based PDT treatment of EMT6 mammary sarcoma in mice, the tumor-free rate of the treated mice was increased from 38% to 75% using 1.5% GC solution. In mTHPC-based PDT treatment of Line-1 lung adenocarcinoma in mice, the tumor-free rates of treated mice reached 38% while PDT alone did not result in any tumor free mouse. The combination of the immunoadjuvant and selective photophysical interaction may become an effective method to treat tumors with an induced anti-tumor immunity.