Nitric oxide synergistic microwave via amplification of immunogenic cell death for enhanced tumor thermotherapy

¹ School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, P. R. China
² State Key Laboratory of Cryogenic Science and Technology, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
³ Laboratory of Controllable Preparation and Application of Nanomaterials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academyof Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

^* Corresponding author: gudeen@uestc.edu.cn, mengxw@mail.ipc.ac.cn

Abstract

In recent years, microwave thermotherapy (MWT) has been widely concerned in tumor treatment. However, problems such as easy recurrence have restricted its application. And some studies have shown that thermotherapy will enhance the immune effect at the same time, but the effect is weak and not enough to inhibit tumor recurrence after thermotherapy. Therefore, we can effectively inhibit tumor growth and recurrence by enhancing the immune effect after thermotherapy. In this paper, Zr-MOF nanoparticles were used to encapsulate the donor of nitrosocysteine (CSNO) for nitric oxide release, and then the mitochondriatargeting ligand of triphenylphosphine (TPP) was attached to obtain CSNO@Zr-MOF-TPP (SZMT) nanocomposites. Under microwave irradiation, SZMT releases NO, which promotes high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) release and calreticulin (CRT) expression, thereby activating the immune effect. The SZMT nanocomposites realizes the combined treatment of MWT, gas therapy and immunotherapy under microwave irradiation, which provides a new insight for the application of MWT in the clinic.