Microwave‐Responsive AlEu‐MOFs Potentiate NLRP3‐Mediated Pyroptosis via a “Triple Initiating” Tactic for Breast Cancer Microwave‐Immunotherapy
Microwave thermotherapy is favored in clinical practice for breast cancer conservation strategies due to its minimally invasive characteristic. Nevertheless, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) significantly attenuates the therapeutic efficacy of anti-tumor immune response, posing challenges in effectively preventing tumor recurrence and metastasis. Pyroptosis, a recently identified form of programmed cell death triggered by inflammasomes, presents unique inflammatory and immunogenic properties that hold promise for cancer immunotherapy. Herein, microwave-responsive AlEu-MOFs are designed and synthesized to boost NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis via a "Triple Initiating" tactic for breast cancer microwave-immunotherapy. The potent microwave thermal effect of AEM facilitates the up-regulation of HSP90, thereby initiating NLRP3 expression. Concurrently, it induces mitochondrial dysfunction to generate substantial quantities of ROS, further enhancing NLRP3 expression to achieve a targeted amplification of microwave thermotherapy-induced pyroptosis. Simultaneously, the microwave-responsive directed anchoring release of highly active metal ions promotes the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome jointly, ultimately inducing high-efficiency pyroptosis. This innovative "2M" (materials and methods) dual-pronged strategy not only significantly inhibits primary tumor proliferation, but also further impedes distant tumor progression and lung metastasis. This work provides a novel strategy to accurately and effectively achieve pyroptosis and offers a new approach to overcome the obstacles of clinical microwave thermotherapy.
Authors
- Qiong Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1572-1121)
- Zengzhen Chen
- Lourdes Farrugia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1816-0657)
- Xiaohe Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8761-0511)
- Lirong Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5086-8085)
- Guihua Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8957-0477)
- Changhui Fu
- Xiangling Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4302-1760)
- Xianwei Meng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0350-4760)
- Longfei Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7275-9719)
Institutions
- Jinan University (CN)
- University of Malta (MT)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (CN)
- China Medical University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-05-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202501157
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Inflammasome and immune disorders
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.84
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality