Photoimmunotherapy - A Novel Approach for Cancer Treatment

Abstract

People have given cancer a lot of attention because it is one of the diseases with the highest death rates worldwide. The need for undesirable side effects, tumour recurrence, and a poor prognosis cannot be met by conventional therapy procedures. As a novel targeting therapy approach, photoimmunotherapy (PIT) mediated by antibody-photosensitizer conjugates may reduce adverse effects. When the photosensitizer was IRdye700DX, a near-infrared, water- soluble silicon phthalocyanine derivative known as near-infrared photoimmunotherapy (NIR- PIT), even no adverse effects were noted. It was determined that a host anticancer immune response was triggered by the fast and highly selective immunogenic cell death (ICD) caused by the rupture of the cell membrane under NIR irradiation. PIT achieved successful tumor suppression in a variety of tumor types in vivo and could essentially target any antigens for malignancies. Numerous initiatives, such as combination therapy with chemotherapy or immunogenic protein, were performed to increase the therapeutic efficacy and decrease tumour recurrence. Cetuximab (Cet)-IR700, the agent of NIR-PIT, was effectively used in the first half of 1/2 clinical study in the human phase in 2017. Patients with recurrent head and neck cancer who were unable to receive surgical treatment were the target population. Therefore, PIT is anticipated to function as a novel targeted strategy for therapeutic cancer treatment.