Multifunctional theranostic nanoparticles for multi-modal imaging-guided CAR-T immunotherapy and chemo-photothermal combinational therapy of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Accurate and effective tumor diagnosis, detection, and treatment are key for improving the survival rates of patients. Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy has shown remarkable clinical success in eradicating hematologic malignancies. However, the hostile microenvironment in solid tumors severely prevents CAR-T cells from migrating and from infiltrating and killing malignant cells. Tumor microenvironment modulation strategies have attracted much attention in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Multifunctional nanoplatforms that integrate the advantages of different therapeutic techniques can allow for the multimodal synergistic treatment of tumors. In this study, a biocompatible, tumor-targeting, on-demand approach combining CAR-T cell immunotherapy and a chemo-photothermal therapy nanoplatform (FA-Gd-GERTs@Ibrutinib) based on gadolinium-loaded gap-enhanced Raman tags (Gd-GERTs) has been developed for multimodal imaging, and it provides a reliable treatment strategy for solid tumor immunotherapy via microenvironment reconstruction. In our study, folate (FA) receptor targeted molecules are used to improve the accuracy and sensitivity of computed tomography/magnetic resonance/Raman multimodal tumor imaging. The photothermal effect of the nanoprobe can promote the angiogenesis of lymphoma tissue, destroy the extracellular matrix, loosen compact tissue, stimulate chemokine secretion, and effectively enhance the infiltration ability in the case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, without dampening the CD19 CAR-T cell activity. The treatment results in tumor-bearing mice proved the existence of excellent synergistic therapy; photothermal therapy improves the accumulation and effector function of CAR-T cells within solid tumors. It is believed that multifunctional nanomaterials with targeted multi-modal imaging capabilities that support combination therapy can provide an efficient route for accurate diagnosis and efficient treatment.