Multidimensional profiling of functionalized photothermal nanoplatforms for synergistic cancer immunotherapy: Design, strategy, and challenge

Currently, photothermal immunotherapy (PTIT) using functionalized photothermal nanoplatforms synergized with immune-related drugs has been shown in numerous studies to be successful in the treatment of primary, recurrent, or metastatic cancers. Generally, hyperthermia driven by near-infrared light can stimulate a certain antitumor immune response by inducing immunogenic cell death while directly ablating tumor cells. However, single photothermal therapy is insufficient to initiate a comprehensive host immune program against tumors, and tumor tissue contains a complex immunosuppressive microenvironment, necessitating the combination of other cooperative therapeutic strategies that can enhance immune response or block immune suppression for increased PTIT efficacy. Given the biological delivery barriers of nanomedicine in PTIT, the reasonable design of nano carriers from a multidimensional perspective is emphatically discussed here, primarily involving material