ROS-Inducing Micelles Sensitize Tumor-Associated Macrophages to TLR3 Stimulation for Potent Immunotherapy

Lanlan Liu1,2, Huamei He1, Ruijing Liang1

  • 1Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nanomedicine, CAS Key Lab for Health Informatics, Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology , Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences , Shenzhen 518055 , People's Republic of China.

Biomacromolecules
|April 19, 2018
PubMed

One approach to cancer immunotherapy is the repolarization of immunosuppressive tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) to antitumor M1 macrophages. The present study developed galactose-functionalized zinc protoporphyrin IX (ZnPP) grafted poly(l-lysine)- b-poly(ethylene glycol) polypeptide micelles (ZnPP PM) for TAM-targeted immunopotentiator delivery, which aimed at in vivo repolarization of TAMs to antitumor M1 macrophages. The outcomes revealed that ROS-inducing ZnPP PM demonstrated specificity for the in vitro and in vivo targeting of macrophages, elevated the level of ROS, and lowered STAT3 expression in BM-TAMs. Poly I:C (PIC, a TLR3 agonist)-loaded ZnPP PM (ZnPP PM/PIC) efficiently repolarized TAMs to M1 macrophages, which were reliant on ROS generation. Further, ZnPP PM/PIC substantially elevated the activated NK cells and T lymphocytes in B16-F10 melanoma tumors, which caused vigorous tumor regression. Therefore, the TAM-targeted transport of an immunologic adjuvant with ZnPP-grafted nanovectors may be a potential strategy to repolarize TAMs to M1 macrophages in situ for effective cancer immunotherapy.

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