A Strategy of On-Demand Immune Activation for Antifungal Treatment Using Near-Infrared Responsive Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles

Pathogenic fungal infection is a major clinical threat because pathogenic fungi have developed resistant mechanisms to evade the innate immune response, especially interactions with macrophages. Herein, a strategy to activate immune responses of macrophages to fungi based on near-infrared (NIR) resp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nano letters 2023-01, Vol.23 (1), p.326-335
Main Authors: Wang, Zijuan, Qu, Shuyi, Gao, Dong, Shao, Qi, Nie, Chenyao, Xing, Chengfen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antifungal Agents - metabolism
Antifungal Agents - pharmacology
Antifungal Agents - therapeutic use
beta-Glucans - metabolism
Macrophages - metabolism
Nanoparticles - therapeutic use
Polymers - metabolism
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Summary:Pathogenic fungal infection is a major clinical threat because pathogenic fungi have developed resistant mechanisms to evade the innate immune response, especially interactions with macrophages. Herein, a strategy to activate immune responses of macrophages to fungi based on near-infrared (NIR) responsive conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs-M) is reported for antifungal immunotherapy. Under NIR light irradiation, CPNs-M exposes β-glucan on the surface of fungal conidia by photothermal damage and drug released from CPNs-M. The exposed β-glucan elicits macrophage recognition and subsequently activates calcium-calmodulin (Ca2+-CaM) signaling followed by the LC3-associated phagocytosis (LAP) pathway to kill fungal conidia. Consequently, a remarkable elimination of intracellular fugal conidia and successful treatment of fungal pneumonia are achieved. This remote regulation strategy to restore pathogen–immune cell interaction on demand provides a new insight into combatting intractable intracellular infections.
ISSN:1530-6984
1530-6992
DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04484