Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays, Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China.
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 636921, Singapore.
Biomacromolecules. 2022 Apr 11;23(4):1490-1504. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00065. Epub 2022 Mar 14.
Immunotherapy that stimulates the body's own immune system to kill cancer cells has emerged as a promising cancer therapeutic method. However, some types of cancer exhibited a low response rate to immunotherapy, and the high risk of immune-related side effects has been aroused during immunotherapy, which greatly restrict its broad applications in cancer therapy. Phototherapy that uses external light to trigger the therapeutic process holds advantages including high selectivity and efficiency, and low side effects. Recently, it has been proven to be able to stimulate immune response in the tumor region by inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD), the process of which was termed photo-immunotherapy, dramatically improving therapeutic specificity over conventional immunotherapy in several aspects. Among numerous optical materials for photo-immunotherapy, semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) have gained more and more attention owing to their excellent optical properties and good biocompatibility. In this review, we summarize recent developments of SPNs for immunotherapy and imaging of immunoactivation. Different therapeutic modalities triggered by SPNs including photo-immunotherapy and photo-immunometabolic therapy are first introduced. Then, applications of SPNs for real-time monitoring immunoactivation are discussed. Finally, the conclusion and future perspectives of this research field are given.
免疫疗法通过刺激人体自身的免疫系统来杀死癌细胞，已成为一种有前途的癌症治疗方法。然而，某些类型的癌症对免疫疗法的反应率较低，并且在免疫疗法过程中会引发免疫相关的副作用风险，这极大地限制了其在癌症治疗中的广泛应用。光疗利用外部光线来触发治疗过程，具有高选择性和高效率、低副作用等优点。最近的研究已经证明，光疗可以通过诱导免疫原性细胞死亡（ICD）来刺激肿瘤区域的免疫反应，这一过程被称为光免疫治疗，在多个方面显著提高了治疗的特异性，优于传统的免疫疗法。在用于光免疫治疗的众多光学材料中，半导体聚合物纳米粒子（SPNs）由于其优异的光学性能和良好的生物相容性而受到越来越多的关注。在这篇综述中，我们总结了 SPNs 在免疫治疗和免疫激活成像方面的最新进展。首先介绍了 SPNs 触发的不同治疗方式，包括光免疫治疗和光免疫代谢治疗。然后，讨论了 SPNs 在实时监测免疫激活方面的应用。最后，给出了该研究领域的结论和未来展望。
