Phototherapy and immunotherapy in combination is regarded as the ideal therapeutic modality to treat both primary and metastatic tumors. Immunotherapy uses different immunological approaches to stimulate the immune system to identify tumor cells for targeted elimination. Phototherapy destroys the primary tumors by light irradiation, which induces a series of immune responses through triggering immunogenic cancer cell death. Therefore, when integrating immunotherapy with phototherapy, a novel anti‐cancer strategy called photoimmunotherapy (PIT) is emerging. This synergistic treatment modality can not only enhance the effectiveness of both therapies but also overcome their inherent limitations, opening a new era for the current anti‐cancer therapy. Recently, the advancement of nanomaterials affords a platform for PIT. From all these nanomaterials, inorganic nanomaterials stand out as ideal mediators in PIT due to their unique physiochemical properties. Inorganic nanomaterials can not only serve as carriers to transport immunomodulatory agents in immunotherapy owing to their excellent drug‐loading capacity but also function as photothermal agents or photosensitizers in phototherapy because of their great optical characteristics. In this review, the recent advances of multifunctional inorganic nanomaterial‐mediated drug delivery and their contributions to cancer PIT will be highlighted.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/cac2.12255

Multifunctional inorganic nanomaterials for cancer photoimmunotherapy

Cell-based drug delivery systems have shown tremendous advantages in cancer treatment due to their distinctive properties. For instance, delivery of therapeutics using tumor-tropic cells like neutrophils, lymphocytes and mesenchymal stem cells can achieve specific tumor targeting due to the "Trojan Horse" effect. Other circulatory cells like erythrocytes and platelets can greatly improve the circulation time of nanoparticles due to their innate long circulation property. Adipocytes, especially cancer-associated adipocytes, play key roles in tumor development and metabolism, therefore, adipocytes are regarded as promising bio-derived nanoplatforms for anticancer targeted drug delivery. Nanomaterials are important participants in cell-based drug delivery because of their unique physicochemical characteristics. Therefore, the integration of various nanomaterials with different cell types will endow the constructed delivery systems with many attractive properties due to the merits of both. In this review, a number of strategies based on nanomaterial-involved cell-mediated drug delivery systems for cancer treatment will be summarized. This review discusses how nanomaterials can be a benefit to cell-based therapies and how cell-derived carriers overcome the limitations of nanomaterials, which highlights recent advancements and specific biomedical applications based on nanomaterial-mediated, cell-based drug delivery systems.

Combination of Nanomaterials in Cell-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Cancer Treatment.

Despite the encouraging breakthroughs in medical development, cancer remains one of the principle causes of death and threatens human health around the world. Conventional treatment strategies often kill cancer cells at the expense of serious adverse effects or great pain, which yet is not able to achieve an effective cure. Therefore, it is urgent to seek for other novel anticancer approaches to improve the survival rate and life quality of cancer patients. During the past decades, nanotechnology has made tremendous progress in cancer therapy due to many advantages such as targeted drug delivery, decreased dosage-related adverse effects and prolonged drug circulation time. In the context of nanomedicine, carbon nanomaterials occupy very significant positions. Owing to their innate outstanding optical, thermal, electronic, and mechanic features, easy functionalization possibility and large surface for drug loading, carbon nanomaterials serve as not only drug carriers, but also multifunctional platforms to combine with diverse treatment and diagnosis modalities against cancer. Therefore, developing more carbon-based nanoplatforms plays a critical role in cancer theranostics and an update overview that summarizes the recent achievement of carbon nanomaterial-mediated anticancer theranostic approaches is of necessity. In this review, five typical and widely investigated carbon nanomaterials including graphene, graphdiyne, fullerene, carbon nanotubes and carbon quantum dots are introduced in detail from the aspect of treatment strategies based on both cancer cells and tumor microenvironment-involved therapeutic targets. Meanwhile, modern diagnostic methods and clinical translatability of carbon nanomaterials will be highlighted as well.

Versatile carbon nanoplatforms for cancer treatment and diagnosis: strategies, applications and future perspectives

Recent application of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles as a theranostic agent

Despite significant technological advancements in conventional therapies, cancer remains one of the main causes of death worldwide. Although substantial progress has been made in the control and treatment of cancer, several limitations still exist, and there is scope for further advancements. Several adverse effects are associated with modern chemotherapy that hinder cancer treatment and lead to other critical disorders. Since ancient times, plant-based medicines have been employed in clinical practice and have yielded good results with few side effects. The modern research system and advanced screening techniques for plants’ bioactive constituents have enabled phytochemical discovery for the prevention and treatment of challenging diseases such as cancer. Phytochemicals such as vincristine, vinblastine, paclitaxel, curcumin, colchicine, and lycopene have shown promising anticancer effects. Discovery of more plant-derived bioactive compounds should be encouraged via the exploitation of advanced and innovative research techniques, to prevent and treat advanced-stage cancers without causing significant adverse effects. This review highlights numerous plant-derived bioactive molecules that have shown potential as anticancer agents and their probable mechanisms of action and provides an overview of in vitro, in vivo and clinical trial studies on anticancer phytochemicals.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/11/8/1326/pdf?version=1649931198

Role of Plant-Derived Active Constituents in Cancer Treatment and Their Mechanisms of Action

Advanced research has revealed the crucial role of tumor microenvironment (TME) in tumorigenesis. TME consists of a complicated network with a variety of cell types including endothelial cells, pericytes, immune cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), cancer stem cells (CSCs) as well as the extracellular matrix (ECM). The TME-constituting cells interact with the cancerous cells through plenty of signaling mechanisms and pathways in a dynamical way, participating in tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, and response to therapies. Hence, TME is becoming an attractive therapeutic target in cancer treatment, exhibiting potential research interest and clinical benefits. Presently, the novel nanotechnology applied in TME regulation has made huge progress. The nanoparticles (NPs) can be designed as demand to precisely target TME components and to inhibit tumor progression through TME modulation. Moreover, nanotechnology-mediated drug delivery possesses many advantages including prolonged circulation time, enhanced bioavailability and decreased toxicity over traditional therapeutic modality. In this review, update information on TME remodeling through NPs-based targeted drug delivery strategies for anticancer therapy is summarized.

/pdf/nanoparticle-mediated-targeted-drug-delivery-to-remodel-2ux4xzqqir.pdf

Nanoparticle-Mediated Targeted Drug Delivery to Remodel Tumor Microenvironment for Cancer Therapy.

Background Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a refractory subtype of breast cancer, 25-30% of which have dysregulation in the PI3K/AKT pathway. This study investigated the anti-cancer effect of erianin on triple-negative breast cancer cell line and its underlying mechanism. Methods After treatment with erianin, MTT assay was employed to determine the MDA-MB-231 and EFM-192A cell proliferation, the nucleus morphological changes were observed by DAPI staining. The cell cycle and apoptotic proportion were detected by flow cytometry. Western blot was performed to determine the cell cycle and apoptosis-related protein expression and PI3K pathways. Finally, the anti-proliferation activity of erianin was further confirmed by adding or not adding PI3K agonists SC79. Results Erianin inhibited the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 and EFM-192A cells in a dose-dependent manner, the IC50 were 70.96 nM and 78.58 nM, respectively. Erianin could cause cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, and the expressions of p21, p27 were upregulated, while the expressions of CDK1 and Cyclin B1 were downregulated. Erianin also induced apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway, with the upregulation of the expression of Cyto C, PARP, Bax, activity form of Caspase-3, and Caspase-9. Furthermore, p-PI3K and p-Akt expression were downregulated by erianin. After co-incubation with SC79, the cell inhibition rate of erianin was decreased, which further confirmed that the attenuated PI3K/Akt pathway was relevant to the pro-apoptotic effect of erianin. Conclusions Erianin can inhibit the proliferation of TNBC cells and induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, which may ascribe to the abolish the activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway.

Erianin induces triple-negative breast cancer cells apoptosis by activating PI3K/Akt pathway.

BACKGROUND Chylous ascites (CA) presents a challenge as a relatively common postoperative complication in gastric cancer (GC). Primary conservative therapy involved total parenteral nutrition, continuous low-pressure drainage, somatostatin, and a low-fat diet. Drainage tube (DT) clamping has been presented as a potential alternative conservative treatment for GC patients with CA. AIM To propose novel conservative treatment strategies for CA following GC surgery. METHODS The data of patients with CA after GC surgery performed at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center between 2006 and 2021 were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS 53 patients underwent surgery for GC and exhibited postoperative CA during the study period. Postoperative hospitalization and time of DT removal showed a significant positive association (R2 = 0.979, P < 0.001). We further observed that delayed DT removal significantly extended the total and postoperative hospitalization, antibiotic usage duration, and hospitalization cost (postoperative hospitalization: 25.8 d vs 15.5 d, P < 0.001; total hospitalization: 33.2 d vs 24.7 d, P < 0.01; antibiotic usage duration: 10.8 d vs 6.2 d, P < 0.01; hospitalization cost: ¥9.2 × 104 vs ¥6.5 × 104, P < 0.01). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that postoperative infection and antibiotic usage were independent factors for delayed DT removal. Furthermore, DT removal times were shorter in seven patients who underwent DT clamping (clamped DT vs normal group, 11.8 d vs 13.6 d, P = 0.047; clamped DT vs delayed group, 13.6 d vs 27.4 d, P < 0.001). In addition, our results indicated that removal of the DT may be possible after three consecutive days of drainage volumes less than 300 mL in GC patients with CA. CONCLUSION Infection and antibiotic usage were vital independent factors that influenced delayed DT removal in patients with CA. Appropriate standards for DT removal can significantly reduce the duration of hospitalization. Furthermore, DT clamping might be a recommended option for conservative treatment of postoperative CA.

Yonggang Xu

Papers

Nanoparticle-Mediated Targeted Drug Delivery to Remodel Tumor Microenvironment for Cancer Therapy.

Erianin induces triple-negative breast cancer cells apoptosis by activating PI3K/Akt pathway.

Novel management indications for conservative treatment of chylous ascites after gastric cancer surgery