Oxygen-boosted immunogenic photodynamic therapy with gold nanocages@manganese dioxide to inhibit tumor growth and metastases.

Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) is an aggressive disease among women worldwide, characterized by high mortality and poor prognosis despite systemic therapy with radiation and chemotherapies. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an important strategy to eliminate the primary tumor, however its therapeutic efficacy against metastases and recurrence is still limited. Here, we employed a template method to develop the core-shell gold nanocage@manganese dioxide (AuNC@MnO2, AM) nanoparticles as tumor microenvironment responsive oxygen producers and near-infrared (NIR)-triggered reactive oxygen species (ROS) generators for oxygen-boosted immunogenic PDT against mTNBC. In this platform, MnO2 shell degrades in acidic tumor microenvironment pH/H2O2 conditions and generates massive oxygen to boost PDT effect of AM nanoparticles under laser irradiation. Fluorescence (FL)/photoacoustic (PA)/magnetic resonance (MR) multimodal imaging confirms the effective accumulation of AM nanoparticles with sufficient oxygenation in tumor site to ameliorate local hypoxia. Moreover, the oxygen-boosted PDT effect of AM not only destroys primary tumor effectively but also elicits immunogenic cell death (ICD) with damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) release, which subsequently induces DC maturation and effector cells activation, thereby robustly evoking systematic antitumor immune responses against mTNBC. Hence, this oxygen-boosted immunogenic PDT nanosystem offers a promising approach to ablate primary tumor and simultaneously prevent tumor metastases via immunogenic abscopal effects.

[Single plane Simpson's method for measurement of right ventricular volume by X-ray ventriculography].

OBJECTIVE: To study the validity of single plane Simpson's method with conventional X-ray ventriculography for estimation of right ventricular (RV) volume. METHODS: Fifteen human RV casts were obtained from 15 subjects who died from non-cardiac causes within 24 hours after death. These casts were photographed respectively and their volumes were calculated by using the single plane Simpson's method based on a new half-circle model. The actual RV cast volumes were determined by water displacement method. RESULTS: The actual RV volume was (64.23 +/- 24.51) ml and the calculated volume was (58.04 +/- 24.45) ml. The calculated RV volume underestimated the actual volume by (6.19 +/- 12.38) ml, but there was no significant difference between the actual and the calculated RV volume (P > 0.05). There was a significant correlation between the actual cast volume and the calculated volume (r = 0.983, P < 0.01). The regression equation was: RV actual volume = 1.074 x (RV calculated volume). CONCLUSION: RV volume calculated by single plane Simpson's method with conventional X-ray ventriculography is accurate and deserves further study.