Frontiers in Immunology (Oct 2024)

A novel hollow iron nanoparticle system loading PEG-Fe3O4 with C5a receptor antagonist for breast cancer treatment

  • Hong Yang,
  • Guiqing Li,
  • Ji Zhang,
  • Jing Zhao,
  • Yunpei Zhao,
  • Yufei Wu,
  • Zihan Sun,
  • Shuangshuang Song,
  • Ying Zou,
  • Zhihao Zou,
  • Xiao Han,
  • Boshao Deng,
  • Lulu Wang,
  • Hang Rao,
  • Guilian Xu,
  • Shufeng Wang,
  • Sheng Guo,
  • Huanyu Ding,
  • Yan Shi,
  • Yuzhang Wu,
  • Jian Chen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1466180
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15

Abstract

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Breast cancer is the most diagnosed malignancy and major cause of cancer death among women population in the worldwide. Ferroptosis is a recently discovered iron-dependent regulated cell death involved in tumor progression and therapeutic response. Moreover, increasing studies have implied that ferroptosis is a promising approach to eliminating cancer cells like developing iron nanoparticles as a therapeutic agent. However, resistance to ferroptosis is a vital distinctive hallmark of cancer. Therefore, further investigation of the mechanism of ferroptosis resistance to enhance its tumor sensitivity is essential for ferroptosis-target breast cancer therapy. Our results revealed that the activation of C5a/C5aR pathway can drive resistance to ferroptosis and reshaping breast cancer immune microenvironment. Accordingly, loading PEG-Fe3O4 with C5aRA significantly improved the anti-tumor effect of PEG- Fe3O4 by inhibiting ferroptosis resistance and increasing macrophage polarization toward M1 phenotype. Our findings presented a novel cancer therapy strategy that combined cancer cell metal metabolism regulation and immunotherapy. The study also provided support for further evaluation of PEG- Fe3O4@C5aRA as a novel therapeutic strategy for breast cancer in clinical trials.

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