Pyroptosis‐Mediated Synergistic Photodynamic and Photothermal Immunotherapy Enabled by a Tumor‐Membrane‐Targeted Photosensitive Dimer
Abstract
Overcoming the resistance to apoptosis and immunosuppression of tumor cells is a significant challenge in augmenting the effect of cancer immunotherapy. Pyroptosis, a lytic programmed cell‐death pathway unlike apoptosis, is considered a type of immunogenic cell death (ICD) that can intensify the ICD process in tumor cells, releasing dramatically increased tumor‐associated antigens and damage‐associated molecular patterns to promote cancer immunotherapy. Herein, a tumor cell membrane‐targeted aggregation‐induced emission photosensitive dimer is found to be able to achieve highly efficient ICD under the synergistic effect of photodynamic and photothermal therapy. The photosensitive dimer can efficiently produce type‐I reactive oxygen species (ROS) by photodynamic therapy in hypoxic tumor tissue, leading to pyroptosis by direct cell membrane damage, which is further reinforced by its photothermal effect. Furthermore, the enhanced ICD effect based on the dimer can completely eliminate the primary tumor on the seventh day of treatment and can also boost systemic antitumor immunity by generating immune memory, which is demonstrated by the superior antitumor therapeutic effects on both solid tumors and metastatic tumors when healing 4T1 tumor mouse models with poor immunogenicity.
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“Synergistic strategies that integrate PDT and PTT can accelerate cell death, thereby enhancing therapeutic ef fi cacy 12,13 .”
Self-citation
- Authors
- Tang, Y., Bisoyi, H. K., Chen, X., Liu, Z., Chen, X., Zhang, S., & Li, Q.
- Affiliations
- Southeast University (CN)
- Kent State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Xu‐Man
- Liu, Zhiyang
- Li, Quan
- Venue
- Advanced Materials
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-04-25
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 25
- Pages
- e2300232-e2300232
- ISSN
- 0935-9648 (ISSN-L)
- 1521-4095
- OpenAlex
- W4324329595
- Cited by
- 214
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 72 · 2024: 87 · 2023: 26
- FWCI
- 16.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Advanced Materials (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (22001035)
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Photodynamic Therapy Research Studies
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
- Keywords
- pyroptosis, immunogenic cell death, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, aggregation-induced emission, reactive oxygen species, cancer immunotherapy, metastatic cancer, 4T1 breast cancer, immunological memory
- MeSH terms
- Pyroptosis, Animals, Immunosuppression Therapy, Immunotherapy, Neoplasms, Photochemotherapy, Polymers, Apoptosis, Cell Line, Tumor, Mice
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