Shiqian Gao, Tianyu Li, Ye Guo, Chenxing Sun, Banruo Xianyu, Huaping Xu
Adv. Mater.; 2020, 32, 1907568.
Considering the limited clinical benefits of individual approaches against malignancy, natural killer (NK) cell-mediated immunotherapy is increasingly utilized in combination with radiotherapy and target therapeutics. However, the interplay of targeted agents, immunotherapy and radiotherapy is complex. An improved understanding of the effect of chemotherapy or radiotherapy on specific molecular pathways in immune cells would help to optimize the synergistic anti-tumour efficiency. In this study, the selenium-containing nanoparticles (NPs) could deliver the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) to tumour sites by systemic administration. Radiation stimuli facilitate DOX release and enhance chemotherapy efficiency. Moreover, radiation could oxidize diselenide-containing NPs to seleninic acid, which have both synergistic anti-tumour effect and immunomodulatory activity through enhancing NK cells function. These results indicate that the selenium-containing NPs would be a potential approach to achieve simultaneous treatments of immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy by a simple but effective method.