An enzyme-responsive and transformable PD-L1 blocking peptide-photosensitizer conjugate enables efficient photothermal immunotherapy for breast cancer.

ABSTRACT: Mild photothermal therapy combined with immune checkpoint blockade has received increasing attention for the treatment of advanced or metastatic cancers due to its good therapeutic efficacy. However, it remains a challenge to facilely integrate the two therapies and make it potential for clinical translation. This work designed a peptide-photosensitizer conjugate (PPC), which consisted of a PD-L1 antagonist peptide (CVRARTR), an MMP-2 specific cleavable sequence, a self-assembling motif, and the photosensitizer Purpurin 18. The single-component PPC can self-assemble into nanospheres which is suitable for intravenous injection. The PPC nanosphere is cleaved by MMP-2 when it accumulates in tumor sites, thereby initiating the cancer-specific release of the antagonist peptide. Simultaneously,

SUBMITTER: Sun Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9519467 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature