Corn-like Au/Ag nanorod-mediated NIR-II photothermal/photodynamic therapy potentiates immune checkpoint antibody efficacy by reprogramming the cold tumor microenvironment

Immune checkpoint blocking (ICB) antibodies have shown great success in the clinic, but their low response rate in patients with immunosuppressive cold tumors remains a huge challenge. Inspired by the capability of immunogenic cell death (ICD) to convert tumors from cold to hot, we developed a corn-like Au/Ag nanorod (NR) that can induce the ICD of tumor cells under 1064-nm light irradiation. The corn-like Au/Ag NRs plus NIR-II light irradiation strikingly increased the tumor infiltration of T cells and provoked a systemic immune response to reprogram the immunosuppressive cold tumor microenvironment; these NRs synergized with ICB antibodies to efficiently inhibit distant tumor growth. Encouragingly, the combination of aCTLA4 and Au/Ag NRs plus 1064-nm light irradiation elicited a strong immunological memory effect that protected against tumor recurrence.