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Mitochondrial uncouplers are capable of maximizing cell respiration to induce local hypoxia, which provides a promising target for bioreductive therapy. In this work, we develop a metal-coordinated mitochondria protonophore uncoupler (designated as Cu-BAQ) for O 2 -exhausting enhanced bioreductive therapy. In brief, carrier free Cu-BAQ is self-assembled by copper ion (Cu 2+ ), mitochondria protonophore uncoupler (BAM15) and bioreductive drug (AQ4N), which possesses a favorable stability and an improved bioavailability. After intravenous administration, nanosized Cu-BAQ prefers to accumulate at tumor site for effective cellular uptake. Moreover, the Cu 2+ -coordinated nanomedicine of Cu-BAQ exhibits a glutathione (GSH) responsive drug release behavior and the released BAM15 could promote the mitochondria uncoupling to maximize the cell respiration. As a result, the excessive O 2 consumption would induce local hypoxia to activate AQ4N for enhanced bioreductive therapy. In vivo investigations demonstrate that Cu-BAQ is able to regulate tumor hypoxia microenvironment and significantly inhibit tumor growth with a minimized side effect. This GSH-responsive self-delivery nanoplatform provides a new insight for the development of individualized biomedicine for hypoxic tumor precision therapy., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Antioxidant-defense systems of tumor cells protect them from oxidative damage. Herein, a carrier-free nanomedicine is developed based on chlorine e6 (Ce6) and coniferyl ferulate (Con), which inhibits glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity to hamper antioxidant systems and amplify intracellular oxidative stress for enhanced photodynamic therapy.

Apoptosis resistance of tumor cells often results in chemoresistance and treatment failure in clinic. In this work, a Cu 2+ -coordinated morusin/doxorubicin biological organizer (designated as COMBO) is designed to combat cellular resistance to apoptosis for combined tumor therapy. By virtue of the coordination and π-π stacking effects, the self-assembled COMBO possesses nanometer particle size, narrow and homogenous graininess distribution as well as a good dispersion stability. Moreover, COMBO could be disassembled by glutathione (GSH) with an effective drug release and fluorescence recovery. Morusin-mediated paraptosis could induce extensive vacuolization through the dilation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria, leading to non-apoptotic programmed cell death (PCD) regardless of the cellular resistance to apoptosis. Furthermore, the released doxorubicin prefers to locate in cell nucleus to cause cell apoptosis for combined chemotherapy. By the joint action of paraptosis and apoptosis, COMBO exhibits a great superiority over monotherapy in tumor inhibition with a low system toxicity. This study may open a window in the development of self-delivery nanomedicine for overcoming apoptosis resistance in tumor therapy., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A chlorine e6 (Ce6) and curcumin (Cur) based self-delivery nanomedicine (CeCu) is prepared for chemotherapy sensitized photodynamic therapy (PDT). The chemotherapeutic agent of Cur could inhibit the TrxR activity to destroy the cellular ROS-defence system for enhanced PDT, which provides synergistic effects for tumor precision therapy in consideration of the unfavorable tumor microenvironments.

Chemotherapy-induced side effects restrain anti-tumor efficiency, with hyperlipidemia being the most common accompanying disease to cause treatment failure. In this work, a chimeric peptide-engineered nanomedicine (designated as PRS) was fabricated for the synergistic suppression of tumor growth and therapy-induced hyperlipidemia. Within this nanomedicine, the tumor matrix-targeting peptide palmitic-K(palmitic)CREKA can self-assemble into a nano-micelle to encapsulate Rapamycin (mTOR inhibitor) and SBC-115076 (PCSK9 inhibitor). This PRS nanomedicine exhibits a uniform nano-distribution with good stability which enhances intracellular drug delivery and tumor-targeting delivery. Also, PRS was found to synergistically inhibit tumor cell proliferation by interrupting the mTOR pathway and reducing Rapamycin-induced hyperlipidemia by increasing the production of LDLR. In vitro and in vivo results demonstrate the superiority of PRS for systematic suppression of tumor growth and the reduction of hyperlipidemia without initiating any other toxic side effects. This work proposes a sophisticated strategy to inhibit tumor growth and also provides new insights for cooperative management of chemotherapy-induced side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Although photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been well-known as a promising anti-tumor treatment, its limited therapeutic efficiency remains to be a large challenge. In this study, a carrier free nanomedicine (designated as PyroMor) is developed to greatly initiate cell apoptosis and paraptosis for synergistic cancer therapy. Pyropheophorbide-a (Pyro) and morusin (Mor) are capable of self-assembling into PyroMor, which has been testified to have superiority of improved stability, cellular internalization, and biocompatibility. Because of efficient cellular uptake behavior, PyroMor could induce cellular paraptosis by Mor-caused vacuolation in mitochondria, ER and cytoplasm, contributing to improving the PDT efficacy of Pyro. Therefore, self-delivery PyroMor is able to accomplish synergistic anti-tumor effect via stimulation of cell apoptosis as well as paraptosis. In addition, in vivo studies also clarify that PyroMor presents passive tumor targeting delivery, leading to robust repressive effect on tumor proliferation with negligible systemic toxicity. This strategy of combined cancer therapy by initiating both cell apoptosis and paraptosis extremely benefits to the development of precise and effective cancer therapy in clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Development of photodynamic degrader targeting breast cancer through EGFR. • Targeted degradation of EGFR using afatinib and ROS produced in situ. • EGFR inhibition mediated PD-L1 downregulation to reverse immunosuppression. • Immunogenic induction and intensive immune activation for metastatic tumor eradication. Spatiotemporal downregulation of immune checkpoint provides a promising strategy to activate anti-tumor immunity. In this work, a breast cancer targeted photodynamic degrader (designated as EIpro) is constructed to activate immunotherapy through EGFR degradation mediated PD-L1 downregulation. To be specific, we develop a chimeric peptide, comprising the photosensitizer Protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) and EGFR targeting peptide (QRHKPRE), to encapsulate an EGFR inhibitor afatinib (AFA) forming nanomicelle, namely EIpro. EIpro has a favorable stability and uniform nanosize distribution, preferring to accumulate in EGFR overexpressed breast cancer cells to amplify the chemotherapeutic effect and photodynamic elimination behavior. More interestingly, photodynamic therapy (PDT) produced reactive oxygen species (ROS) is able to damage breast cancer cells and induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) to release tumor associated antigens (TAAs), thereby degrading the nearby EGFR to downregulate PD-L1 and activate anti-tumor immunity. Beneficially, the multi-synergistic effects of EIpro show a robust therapeutic efficacy against primary and metastatic breast cancer with negligible systemic toxicity. This work provides a spatiotemporal strategy for protein degradation, which might inspire the development of sophisticated nanomedicine for effective tumor treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Tumor vascular blockade is a promising strategy for adjuvant cancer treatment. In this work, a self-delivery nanomedicine is developed based on a vascular disruptor and photosensitizer for tumor synergistic therapy. Specifically, this nanomedicine (designated as CeCA) is comprised of combretastatin A4 (CA4) and chlorine e6 (Ce6) by self-assembly technique. Among which, CA4 could not only induce tubulin inhibition for chemotherapy but also disrupt the vasculature to cause tumor hemorrhage. Moreover, Ce6 is able to generate lots of singlet oxygen (1O 2) for synergistic photodynamic therapy (PDT) under light irradiation. It is interesting that the carrier-free CeCA possessed a favorable stability and an improved cellular uptake behavior. After intravenous administration, CeCA prefers to accumulate at tumor site for vascular disruption-supplemented chemo-photodynamic therapy. Notably, CeCA is prepared without additional carriers, which avoids the system toxicity raised by excipients. Consequently, CeCA greatly inhibits the tumor growth and leads to a low side effect in vivo. It might open a window in the development of self-supplementary nanomedicine for synergistic tumor treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construction of a stable ternary biomedicine without extra drug excipient. • Upregulating NLRP3 to promote PDT induced cell pyroptosis. • Immune activation by pyroptosis induction and IDO inhibition for tumor inhibition. The development of immunotherapy is seriously limited by the insufficient tumor immunogenicity and immunosuppressive microenvironment. Pyroptosis is a new form of immunogenic cell death (ICD) associated with the gasdermin protein family, which has received increasing attention as a promising approach to activate antitumor immunity. Herein, we construct a ternary biomedicine (CNS) based on the self-assembly of photosensitizer chlorine e6 (Ce6), NLG919 (NLG) and simvastatin (Sim), which has a fairly high drug content, good stability and uniform morphology. Interestingly, the photodynamic therapy of CNS can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) to induce intracellular oxidative stress, activating NOD-like receptor thermal protein domain associated protein 3 (NLRP3)/Caspase-1 (Cas-1)/gasdermin D N-terminal domain (GSDMD-N) dependent pyroptosis. Further, Sim-mediated NLRP3 upregulation will also promote cell pyroptosis to activate ICD and stimulate immune responses. Benefiting from NLG-induced indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) inhibition, CNS is capable of improving the immunosuppressive microenvironment to enhance immunotherapy. Consequently, the pyroptosis induction synergized with IDO inhibition of CNS exhibits excellent antitumor immune activities, as evidenced by enhancing DCs maturation and effector memory T cells frequency, which significantly inhibit tumor growth and metastasis. This proposal of self-delivery ternary nanomedicine might open a new window to construct drug delivery systems for pyroptosis activated immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Developing self-delivery photothermal converter (CypCel) based on pure active drugs. • Photo-degradation of CypCel caused fast release of Celecoxib for COX-2 inhibition. • Reversed inflammation microenvironment by down-regulating pro-inflammatory cytokines. • Feedback enhanced photothermal therapy by cascade inflammation inhibition. Photothermal therapy (PTT) for tumor could induce cascade inflammation responses, which in turn promote tumorigenesis, invasion and metastasis. In this paper, a self-delivery photothermal converter (designated as CypCel) is fabricated for feedback enhanced tumor therapy based on hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions between photothermal agent Cypate (Cyp) and anti-inflammatory drug Celecoxib (Cel). Carrier free CypCel holds extremely high drug contents as well as favorable stability and photothermal property. Upon laser irradiation, CypCel induces local hyperpyrexia to restrain tumor proliferation by Cyp-mediated PTT. More importantly, the light-triggered degradation of CypCel causes fast release of Cel for cascade inflammation inhibition, which reverses the pro-inflammatory microenvironment caused by PTT. After intravenous injection, nanosized CypCel prefers to accumulate into tumor site through enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, and subsequently penetrates into tumor tissue for effective cellular uptake. Ultimately, the photothermal converter with anti-inflammatory property significantly suppresses tumor growth with negligible systemic toxicity. This study would advance the development of carrier-free nanomedicine against malignancies and inflammation-associated diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor cells are characterized by unlimited proliferation and escape of immune clearance, which are closely associated with the down regulation of surface antigens. In this work, a carrier free photodynamic modulator (CeTaz) is developed to improve immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and promote the recognition of tumors by T cells by epigenetic reprogramming. Specifically, CeTaz is assembled by chlorine e6 (Ce6) and tazemetostat (Taz) through intermolecular interactions. Upon light irradiation, CeTaz is able to promote the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for a robust photodynamic therapy (PDT) to inhibit localized tumor growth. Meanwhile, the PDT also induces immunogenic cell death (ICD) to initiate immune response, leading to the activation of effector T cells. More importantly, CeTaz could inhibit the epigenetic regulator of EZH2 to suppress the methylation of H3K27, which would promote tumor cells to express MHC-I and release CXCL10. Consequently, the epigenetically reprogrammed tumor cells are readily recognized by effector T cells to enhance the antitumor immunity. Results indicate that the PDT activated immunotherapy of CeTaz could simultaneously inhibit the growth of primary and distant tumors with a low system toxicity. This study would advance the development of carrier free nanomedicine for precise treatment of metastatic tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Self-delivery nanomedicine of PyroR was prepared without drug-excipients. • PyroR could enhance the stability and facilitate the delivery of photosensitizers and TLR agonists. • Photodynamic therapy (PDT) of PyroR could efficiently inhibit primary tumor growth and initiate immunological cascade. • PryoR could repolarize M2 macrophages into M1 phenotype for immunotherapy against metastatic tumors. Immunotherapy is a promising clinical treatment strategy against malignant tumor metastasis, however, it often shows an inadequate efficacy owing to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (ITM). Herein, we develop a self-delivery re-educator to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) and macrophage polarization for photodynamic therapy (PDT) and immunotherapy against breast cancer. To be specific, the self-delivery re-educator (designated as PyroR) is prepared by the self-assembly of the photosensitizer pyropheophorbide-a (Pyro) and TLR agonist resiquimod (R848). Without any carriers, nanosized PyroR exhibits high drug contents and could avoid the side effects raised by excipients. After intravenous administration, PyroR could generate a lot of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for PDT against primary tumor in the presence of light irradiation. Meanwhile, PDT triggered ICD cascade would promote dendritic cells (DCs) maturation and activate cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) for immunotherapy against distant and metastatic tumors. More importantly, R848 is able to polarize macrophages from M2 to M1 phenotype, which would improve the ITM to enhance antitumor immunity. Consequently, the PDT-initiated immunotherapy of PyroR demonstrates significant inhibition effects on primary, distant and metastatic tumors while causes a minimal system toxicity. This self-delivery re-educating strategy would shed light on constructing carrier-free nanomedicine for treatment of malignant tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]