Nanomedicine-mediated Reprogramming of Tumor Immunogenicity
Date
2021-08
Authors
Lara, Emilio
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Abstract
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and has a major
impact on our society. Melanoma is listed as one of the top leading cancers in men and
women and was expected to account for 6,850 cancer deaths in 2020. Many treatment
options exist but are accompanied with adverse side effects that can halt treatments.
Immune checkpoint therapy is a novel approach in our fight against cancer and one that
earned James P. Allison and Tasuko Honjo the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune
regulation. While immune checkpoint therapy has proven effective in the treatment of
metastatic melanoma, this success has been limited to a small fraction of patients. The
reason for low response rates is thought to be due to tumor intrinsic factors that alter the
tumor microenvironment and allow tumor cells to evade destruction by dysregulating T
cell function. The goal of this research was to investigate the utilization of poly(3,4-
ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanoparticle-assisted photothermal therapy (PEDOT
NP-PTT) for ablation of B16-F10 melanoma cells in order to evaluate their ability to
convert nonimmunogenic tumors to immunogenic ones that will respond to immune
checkpoint therapy. To accomplish these goals, the following objectives were pursued:
preparation and characterization of nanoparticles, demonstration of the therapeutic effect
of PEDOT NP-PTT, evaluation of the induction of immunogenic cell death following
treatment, and evaluation of the extent of dendritic cell activation upon PTT through an
in vitro assay.
Description
Keywords
Nanomedicine, Cancer, Dendritic cells, Melanoma cancer cells, Photothermal therapy
Citation
Lara, E. (2021). <i>Nanomedicine-mediated reprogramming of tumor immunogenicity</i> (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.