Yun, Wan Su Yang, Wonseok Shim, Man Kyu Song, Sukyung Choi, Jiwoong Kim, Jeongrae Kim, Jinseong Moon, Yujeong SeongHoon, Jo Lim, Dong-Kwon Kim, Kwangmeyung 2024-05-02T06:00:08Z 2024-05-02T06:00:08Z 2024-05-02 2024-04 1226-4601 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/149790 Photothermal therapy (PTT) at mild temperatures ranging from 44 to 45 °C holds tremendous promise as a strategy for inducing potent immunogenic cell death (ICD) within tumor tissues, which can reverse the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (ITM) into an immune-responsive milieu. However, accurately and precisely controlling the tumor temperature remains a formidable challenge. Here, we report the precision photothermal immunotherapy by using silica-coated gold nanorods (AuNR@SiO2), and investigating the optimal administration routes and treatment protocols, which enabled to achieve the sustained and controlled mild heating within the tumor tissues. First, the highest photothermal performance of AuNR@SiO2 with 20-nm silica shell thickness than 5 or 40 nm was confirmed in vitro and in vivo. Then, the optimal conditions for precision immunotherapy were further investigated to produce mild temperature (44 to 45 °C) accurately in tumor tissues. The optimal conditions with AuNR@SiO2 result in a distinct cell death with high early/late apoptosis and low necrosis, leading to very efficient ICD compared to lower or higher temperatures. In colon tumor-bearing mice, intratumorally injected AuNR@SiO2 efficiently promotes a mild temperature within the tumor tissues by local irradiation of near-infrared (NIR) laser. This mild PTT substantially increases the population of mature dendritic cells (DCs) and cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) within tumor tissues, ultimately reversing the ITM into an immune-responsive milieu. Furthermore, we found that the combination mild PTT with AuNR@SiO2 and anti-PD-L1 therapy could lead to the 100% complete regression of primary tumors and immunological memory to prevent tumor recurrence. Collectively, this study demonstrates that AuNR@SiO2 with a robust methodology capable of continuously inducing mild temperature accurately within the ITM holds promise as an approach to achieve the precision photothermal immunotherapy. English The Korean Society for Biomaterials | BioMed Central Accurately Controlled Tumor Temperature with Silica-Coated Gold Nanorods for Optimal Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy Article 10.34133/bmr.0024 1 Biomaterials Research, v.28, pp.287 - 300 Biomaterials Research 28 287 300 Y scie scopus kci ART003089102 001226694700001 Engineering, Biomedical Materials Science, Biomaterials Engineering Materials Science Article