Immunoinducible carbon dots-incorporated hydrogel as photothermal-derived antigen depot to trigger robust antitumor immune response

Abstract Photothermal therapy (PTT) causes immunogenic tumor cell death (ICD), while fails to elicit a strong anti-tumor immune response partially due to its inherent immunosuppressive microenvironment and low antigen presentation. To address these issues, we developed an immunoinducible carbon dots-incorporated hydrogels (iCD@Gel) through a dynamic covalent Schiff base reaction using mannose modifed aluminum-doped carbon dots (M/A-CDs) as cross-linking agent. The M/A-CDs not only possessed superior photothermal conversion efficiency, but also served as nanocarrier to load CpG ODNs for inducing the maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) via manose receptor-mediated targeting delivery. Upon intratumoral injection, the as-prepared iCD@Gel induced immunogentic tumor cell death and damage-related molecular patterns (DAMPs) release via photothermal ablation under 808 nm NIR irradiation. Subsequently, the iCD@Gel synergized with the DAMPs to significantly promote the maturation and antigen cross-presentation of DCs. Taken together, this work provides a promising strategy to develop nanoparticle-based therapetuic hydrogel for tumor immunotherapy.