NANOPARTICLE APPROACH TO CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY

Abstract

Nanoparticle-based combinatorial photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PDT) have shown to provide synergistic efficacy against primary cancers in animals with just the use of a single wavelength laser at low doses. However, given the limited efficacy of phototherapy towards deep tissue tumours, there is a need to develop combinatorial strategies that goes beyond the treatment of primary tumors. This thesis establishes in exploiting the nanoparticle protein corona with the use of tumor lysate as a form of immunotherapy in combination with PDT and PTT to demonstrate tri-modal photoimmunotherapy, where both complete cancer cell kill through PDT and PTT and immune activation with the tumor lysate can be achieved in vitro. The findings from this thesis serves to provide a rational design parameter of exploiting the nanoparticle protein corona for immunogenic applications which could be used in combination with other therapies.