Synthesis of Nano-grapheneoxide for Anti-tumor Photothermal Therapy and Immunogenic Death

Nano-grapheneoxide (NGO) is a good photothermal conversion agent with strong absorption and good photothermal conversion efficiency at 808nm. The study investigated the photothermal anti-tumor effect and immunogenic death mediated by NGO under the stimulation of near-infrared (NIR) light. Cell viability experiments confirmed that NGO has a good photothermal conversion effect to kill tumor cells effectively. In addition, NGO can stimulate macrophages to up-regulate the expression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), thereby enhancing antigen presentation to trigger immunogenic death. The experiments of local primary tumors and metastatic tumors were simulated. The results showed that NGO-mediated photothermal therapy was effective in ablation of local tumors, and immunogenic death significantly reduced the growth rate of distant tumors, which suggested that photothermal therapy based on NGO may induce the anti-tumor immune response. The enhanced immune system would locally killing the tumor in situ, thus achieving the effect of inhibiting the growth of distant tumors.