Personalized Nanovaccines Enhance Lymph Node Accumulation and Reprogram the Tumor Microenvironment for Improved Photodynamic Immunotherapy

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 24; no. 24; pp. 7432 - 7442
• Main Authors: Wang, Ruoning, Li, Jinge, Wang, Xiaohong, Zhang, Yingjie, Zhu, Anran, Feng, Kuanhan, Li, Junsong, Di, Liuqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 20.05.2024
• Subjects: tumor microenvironment; hybrid vesicle; photoimmunotherapy; cancer vaccine; lymph node homing
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c01678

Tumor immunotherapy has emerged as an efficacious therapeutic approach that mobilizes the patient’s immune system to achieve durable tumor suppression. Here, we design a photodynamic therapy-motivated nanovaccine (Dex-HDL/ALA-Fe3O4) co-delivering 5-aminolevulinic acid and Fe3O4 nanozyme that demonstrate a long-term durable immunotherapy strategy. After vaccination, the nanovaccine exhibits obvious tumor site accumulation, lymph node homing, and specific and memory antitumor immunity evocation. Upon laser irradiation, Dex-HDL/ALA-Fe3O4 effectively generates reactive oxygen species at the tumor site not only to induce the immunogenic cell death-cascade but also to trigger the on-demand release of full types of tumor antigens. Intriguingly, Fe3O4 nanozyme-catalyzed hydrogen peroxide generated oxygen for alleviating tumor hypoxia and modifying the inhibitory tumor microenvironment, thereby exhibiting remarkable potential as a sensitizer. The intravenous administration of nanovaccines in diverse preclinical cancer models has demonstrated remarkable tumor regression and inhibition of postoperative tumor recurrence and metastasis, thereby enabling personalized treatment strategies against highly heterogeneous tumors.