The development of an efficient tumor-specific therapeutic approach, which functions against the primary tumor and also repairs the host immune system to eradicate distant tumors, remains a clinical issue. Herein, this study focuses on the use of polydopamine-coated gold nanoparticles (Au@PDA NPs) that showed excellent selectivity towards cancer cells. The Au@PDA NPs were prepared by a plasma synthesis method with a short reaction time and minimize the use of chemicals. Prominently, Au@PDA NPs not only exhibited high cellular internalization but also stimulated immunogenic cell death (ICD) in aggressive breast carcinoma cells. Moreover, it was observed that damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) were released by damaged cells together with the autophagy process after Au@PDA NPs exposure, which acted as endogenous danger signals to regulate the consequent immune response. This study highlights the novel mechanism of Au@PDA NPs-triggered anti-tumor immunity against immunosuppressive cancers, demonstrated the potential of the Au@PDA NPs for cancer immunotherapy.

开发一种有效的肿瘤特异性治疗方法，其作用是对抗原发肿瘤并修复宿主免疫系统以根除远处肿瘤，仍然是一个临床问题。在此，本研究侧重于使用对癌细胞显示出优异选择性的聚多巴胺涂层金纳米粒子（Au@PDA NPs）。Au@PDA NPs 是通过等离子体合成方法制备的，反应时间短，并且最大限度地减少了化学品的使用。值得注意的是，Au@PDA NPs 不仅表现出高细胞内化，而且在侵袭性乳腺癌细胞中刺激免疫原性细胞死亡（ICD）。此外，观察到损伤相关分子模式（DAMPs）在 Au@PDA NPs 暴露后与自噬过程一起被损伤细胞释放，它作为内源性危险信号来调节随后的免疫反应。本研究强调了 Au@PDA NPs 触发抗肿瘤免疫对抗免疫抑制性癌症的新机制，证明了 Au@PDA NPs 在癌症免疫治疗中的潜力。