Conventional photothermal therapy (PTT) is insufficient to induce a strong and potent anti-tumor immune response. Herein, we present a vanadyl nanocomplex, which simultaneously serves as a photothermal agent (PTA) and an immunogenic cell death (ICD) inducer to enhance the anti-tumor immunity of PTT. The vanadyl nanocomplex (STVN) is constructed via facile one-step coordination assembly under ambient conditions. STVN not only has a strong and stable photothermal effect under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation, but also can cause severe endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress by itself, leading to ICD and activating the systemic immune responses. In the absence of any adjuvants, NIR-irradiated STVN almost completely ablates primary tumors and simultaneously inhibits distant tumors in mice bearing bilateral melanoma. Meanwhile, the intratumorally injected STVN combined with NIR effectively suppressed melanoma lung metastasis as well as tumor recurrence, displaying that local STVN-mediated PTT could trigger a systemic anti-tumor immunity. Therefore, STVN, as a novel immunogenicity-enhanced PTA, affords a “one stone two birds” strategy for improved photothermia-induced cancer immunotherapy.

传统的光热疗法 (PTT) 不足以诱导强大而有效的抗肿瘤免疫反应。在此，我们提出了一种钒基纳米复合物，它同时用作光热剂 (PTA) 和免疫原性细胞死亡 (ICD) 诱导剂，以增强 PTT 的抗肿瘤免疫力。氧钒纳米复合物（STVN）是通过在环境条件下轻松一步协调组装。STVN不仅在近红外（NIR）照射下具有强烈而稳定的光热效应，而且自身可引起严重的内质网（ER）应激，导致ICD并激活全身免疫反应。在没有任何佐剂的情况下，NIR 照射的 STVN 几乎完全消融了患有双侧黑色素瘤的小鼠的原发性肿瘤并同时抑制了远处肿瘤。同时，瘤内注射 STVN 联合 NIR 有效抑制黑色素瘤肺转移和肿瘤复发，表明局部 STVN 介导的 PTT 可触发全身抗肿瘤免疫。因此，STVN 作为一种新型免疫原性增强型 PTA，为改进光热诱导的癌症免疫治疗提供了“一石二鸟”的策略。