Near-infrared photoimmunotherapy of cancer: a new approach that kills cancer cells and enhances anti-cancer host immunity.

ABSTRACT: Near-infrared photoimmunotherapy (NIR-PIT) is a recently developed hybrid cancer therapy that directly kills cancer cells as well as producing a therapeutic host immune response. Conventional immunotherapies, such as immune-activating cytokine therapy, checkpoint inhibition, engineered T cells and suppressor cell depletion, do not directly destroy cancer cells, but rely exclusively on activating the immune system. NIR-PIT selectively destroys cancer cells, leading to immunogenic cell death that initiates local immune reactions to released cancer antigens from dying cancer cells. These are characterized by rapid maturation of dendritic cells and priming of multi-clonal cancer-specific cytotoxic T cells that kill cells that escaped the initial direct effects of NIR-PIT. The NIR-PIT can be ap

SUBMITTER: Kobayashi H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7771006 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature