Nanomaterials for Disease Treatment by Modulating the Pyroptosis Pathway

Hyaluronic acid-modified doxorubicin-covalent organic framework nanoparticles triggered pyroptosis in combinations with immune checkpoint blockade for the treatment of breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive malignancy, and the current treatment strategies have poor efficacy. Pyroptosis, a type of immunogenic cell death, significantly enhances antitumor immunity by triggering the release of numerous intracellular components. Here, we prepared a covalent-organic framework (COF) loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) and coated it with hyaluronic acid (HA) as a therapeutic delivery system (HA@DOX-COF) for the treatment of TNBC. Mechanistically, upon cellular uptake, HA@DOX-COF activated pyroptosis through the caspase-3/GSDME pathway. Moreover, HA@DOX-COF induced a pyroptosis-induced antitumor immune response and further augmented the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Our results demonstrated that the combination of HA@DOX-COF and an anti-PD-1 antibody markedly inhibited tumor progression in a TNBC murine model. Overall, our work offers a potential approach for pyroptosis-induced immunotherapy for TNBC, which may increase the efficacy of ICB-based immunotherapy.

Nanomaterials-Induced Pyroptosis: Advancing Novel Therapeutic Pathways in Nanomedicine

Pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death characterized by cell lysis and inflammation, has significant implications for disease treatment. Nanomaterials (NMs), with their unique physicochemical properties, can precisely modulate pyroptosis, offering novel and intelligent therapeutic strategies for cancer, infectious diseases, and chronic inflammatory conditions with targeted activation and reduced systemic toxicity. This review explores the mechanisms by which NMs regulate pyroptosis, comparing molecular and NM inducers, and examines the role of intrinsic properties such as size, shape, surface charge, and chemical composition in these processes. It also discusses the balance between the beneficial and adverse effects of NM-induced pyroptosis, highlighting targeted delivery systems, surface modifications, and controlled activation as strategies to enhance therapeutic efficacy and intelligence while minimizing toxicity. Notably, mRNA-based nanomedicine can be precisely and intelligently designed to activate pyroptosis, achieving desired therapeutic outcomes tailored to the evolving microenvironment of diseases. By understanding these interactions, the therapeutic potential of NMs can be harnessed to develop innovative treatments and manage pyroptosis-associated diseases safely, effectively, and intelligently. This review also highlights their transformative potential in clinical applications.

Recent Advances in Nanomaterial-Mediated Cell Death for Cancer Therapy

Nanomedicine has shown great anticancer potential by disrupting redox homeostasis and increasing the levels of oxidative stress, but the therapeutic effect is limited by factors including the intrinsic self-protection mechanism of tumors. Cancer cell death can be induced by the exploration of different cell death mechanisms, such as apoptosis, pyroptosis, necroptosis, cuproptosis, and ferroptosis. The merging of nanotechnology with biomedicine has provided tremendous opportunities to construct cell death-based nanomedicine for innovative cancer therapy. Nanocarriers are not only used for the targeted delivery of cell death inducers, but also as therapeutic components to induce cell death to achieve efficient tumor treatment. This review focuses on seven cell death modalities mediated by nanomaterials, such as apoptosis, pyroptosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, cuprotosis, immunogenic cell death, and autophagy. The mechanisms of these seven cell death modalities are described in detail, as well as the preparation of nanomaterials that induce them and the mechanisms, they used to exert their effects. Finally, this work describes the potential future development based on the current knowledge related to cell death induced by nanomaterials.

Pyroptosis in health and disease: mechanisms, regulation and clinical perspective

Pyroptosis is a type of programmed cell death characterized by cell swelling and osmotic lysis, resulting in cytomembrane rupture and release of immunostimulatory components, which play a role in several pathological processes. Significant cellular responses to various stimuli involve the formation of inflammasomes, maturation of inflammatory caspases, and caspase-mediated cleavage of gasdermin. The function of pyroptosis in disease is complex but not a simple angelic or demonic role. While inflammatory diseases such as sepsis are associated with uncontrollable pyroptosis, the potent immune response induced by pyroptosis can be exploited as a therapeutic target for anti-tumor therapy. Thus, a comprehensive review of the role of pyroptosis in disease is crucial for further research and clinical translation from bench to bedside. In this review, we summarize the recent advancements in understanding the role of pyroptosis in disease, covering the related development history, molecular mechanisms including canonical, non-canonical, caspase 3/8, and granzyme-mediated pathways, and its regulatory function in health and multiple diseases. Moreover, this review also provides updates on promising therapeutic strategies by applying novel small molecule inhibitors and traditional medicines to regulate pyroptosis. The present dilemmas and future directions in the landscape of pyroptosis are also discussed from a clinical perspective, providing clues for scientists to develop novel drugs targeting pyroptosis.

Magneto-optical nanosystems for tumor multimodal imaging and therapy in-vivo

Multimodal imaging, which combines the strengths of two or more imaging modalities to provide complementary anatomical and molecular information, has emerged as a robust technology for enhancing diagnostic sensitivity and accuracy, as well as improving treatment monitoring. Moreover, the application of multimodal imaging in guiding precision tumor treatment can prevent under- or over-treatment, thereby maximizing the benefits for tumor patients. In recent years, several intriguing magneto-optical nanosystems with both magnetic and optical properties have been developed, leading to significant breakthroughs in the field of multimodal imaging and image-guided tumor therapy. These advancements pave the way for precise tumor medicine. This review summarizes various types of magneto-optical nanosystems developed recently and describes their applications as probes for multimodal imaging and agents for image-guided therapeutic interventions. Finally, future research and development prospects of magneto-optical nanosystems are discussed along with an outlook on their further applications in the biomedical field.

Transition-Metal-Based Nanozymes: Synthesis, Mechanisms of Therapeutic Action, and Applications in Cancer Treatment

Cancer, as one of the leading causes of death worldwide, drives the advancement of cutting-edge technologies for cancer treatment. Transition-metal-based nanozymes emerge as promising therapeutic nanodrugs that provide a reference for cancer therapy. In this review, we present recent breakthrough nanozymes for cancer treatment. First, we comprehensively outline the preparation strategies involved in creating transition-metal-based nanozymes, including hydrothermal method, solvothermal method, chemical reduction method, biomimetic mineralization method, and sol-gel method. Subsequently, we elucidate the catalytic mechanisms (catalase (CAT)-like activities), peroxidase (POD)-like activities), oxidase (OXD)-like activities) and superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activities) of transition-metal-based nanozymes along with their activity regulation strategies such as morphology control, size manipulation, modulation, composition adjustment and surface modification under environmental stimulation. Furthermore, we elaborate on the diverse applications of transition-metal-based nanozymes in anticancer therapies encompassing radiotherapy (RT), chemodynamic therapy (CDT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), sonodynamic therapy (SDT), immunotherapy, and synergistic therapy. Finally, the challenges faced by transition-metal-based nanozymes are discussed alongside future research directions. The purpose of this review is to offer scientific guidance that will enhance the clinical applications of nanozymes based on transition metals.

Biodegradable Monometallic Aluminum as a Biotuner for Tumor Pyroptosis

Pyroptosis is an effective anti-tumor strategy. However, monometallic pyroptosis biotuners have not been explored until now. Here, we discover for the first time that biodegradable monometallic Al can act as a pyroptosis biotuner for tumor therapy. pH-sensitive Al nanoparticles (Al@P) are obtained by equipping polyethylene glycol-b-(poly(methyl methacrylate)-co-poly(4-vinylpyridine), which can exert their effect at the tumor site without affecting normal cells. The H2 and Al3+ release by Al@P in the acidic environment of tumors disrupts the redox balance and ionic homeostasis in tumor cells, thus generating large amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to caspase-1 activation, gasdermin D cleavage, and IL-1β/LDH release, which induces canonical pyroptotic death. Meanwhile, the prodrug Doxorubicin (Pro-DOX) is successfully loaded onto Al@P (Al@P-P) and can be activated by ROS to release DOX in the tumor cells, thus further improving the tumor-killing efficiency. Ultimately, Al@P-P is degradable and exhibits efficient tumor inhibition.

Smart responsive Fe/Mn nanovaccine triggers liver cancer immunotherapy via pyroptosis and pyroptosis-boosted cGAS-STING activation

BACKGROUND

The prognosis for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains suboptimal, characterized by high recurrence and metastasis rates. Although metalloimmunotherapy has shown potential in combating tumor proliferation, recurrence and metastasis, current apoptosis-based metalloimmunotherapy fails to elicit sufficient immune response for HCC.

RESULTS

A smart responsive bimetallic nanovaccine was constructed to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) through pyroptosis and enhance the efficacy of the cGAS-STING pathway. The nanovaccine was composed of manganese-doped mesoporous silica as a carrier, loaded with sorafenib (SOR) and modified with MIL-100 (Fe), where Fe3+, SOR, and Mn2+ were synchronized and released into the tumor with the help of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Afterward, Fe3+ worked synergistically with SOR-induced immunogenic pyroptosis (via both the classical and nonclassical signaling pathways), causing the outflow of abundant immunogenic factors, which contributes to dendritic cell (DC) maturation, and the exposure of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Subsequently, the exposed dsDNA and Mn2+ jointly activated the cGAS-STING pathway and induced the release of type I interferons, which further led to DC maturation. Moreover, Mn2+-related T1 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to visually evaluate the smart response functionality of the nanovaccine.

CONCLUSION

The utilization of metallic nanovaccines to induce pyroptosis-mediated immune activation provides a promising paradigm for HCC treatment.

Activatable Probes for Ratiometric Imaging of Endogenous Biomarkers In Vivo

Dynamic variations in the concentration and abnormal distribution of endogenous biomarkers are strongly associated with multiple physiological and pathological states. Therefore, it is crucial to design imaging systems capable of real-time detection of dynamic changes in biomarkers for the accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of diseases. Recently, ratiometric imaging has emerged as a widely used technique for sensing and imaging of biomarkers due to its advantage of circumventing the limitations inherent to conventional intensity-dependent signal readout methods while also providing built-in self-calibration for signal correction. Here, the recent progress of ratiometric probes and their applications in sensing and imaging of biomarkers are outlined. Ratiometric probes are classified according to their imaging mechanisms, and ratiometric photoacoustic imaging, ratiometric optical imaging including photoluminescence imaging and self-luminescence imaging, ratiometric magnetic resonance imaging, and dual-modal ratiometric imaging are discussed. The applications of ratiometric probes in the sensing and imaging of biomarkers such as pH, reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), glutathione (GSH), gas molecules, enzymes, metal ions, and hypoxia are discussed in detail. Additionally, this Review presents an overview of challenges faced in this field along with future research directions.