Li Yaping's team at Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, regulates nanoparticles through cholesterol metabolism to improve the effect of tumor photodynamic-immunotherapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT)-mediated immune activation makes it both effective as
tumor immunotherapy.
However, the efficacy of PDT immunity is affected by the function and status of tumor-infiltrating cytotoxic T cells (CTLs).

Improving the tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment, effectively activating and enhancing the function of CTLs is expected to improve the anti-tumor immunotherapy effect
of PDT.
The cholesterol metabolism pathway intervenes in the function of CTLs and tumor cells, and by regulating cholesterol metabolism, it is expected to enhance the function of CTLs and improve the anti-tumor effect
.

Recently, Li Yaping's team at Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica published a paper in the journal Small Methods titled: Blocking cholesterol metabolism with tumor-penetrable nanovesicles to improve photodynamic cancer Research paper
on immunotherapy.

In this study, a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2)-responsive pro-osmotic nanoparticle was developed, which simultaneously regulated the cholesterol metabolism behavior of CTLs and tumor cells by promoting intratumoral penetration of drugs, improving the function of CTLs, and synergistically enhancing the anti-tumor effect
of photodynamic-immunotherapy.

In this study, lipid nanovesicles were co-coated with MMP-2 enzyme-sensitive peptide-modifying photosensitizer PPa and cholesterol esterase inhibitor avalmibe to intervene in cholesterol metabolism while performing PDT to improve efficacy
.