Photothermal and gene therapy combined with immunotherapy to gastric cancer by the gold nanoshell-based system

BACKGROUND: The gastric cancer is the second most malignant tumor in the world. HER-2 is one of the key targets for the gastric cancer therapy. Anti-HER-2 antibodies like trastuzumab, exhibits the satisfactory therapeutic effect in clinical. However, the drug resistance problem limits its application. METHOD: In this study, we develop a gold nanoshell (Gold Nanoshell) drug carrier for delivery and selective photo-thermal release of genes which target HER-2 and immunologic adjuvant CPG sequence in gastric tumor cells. The drug delivery system generated a multidimensional treatment strategy which includes gene-, immune- and photothermal-therapy. RESULTS: The whole gold nanoshell drug delivery system exhibits the well gene transduction ability and combined treatment effect. Both in vitro and in vivo results demonstrate the multiple therapeutic effects of the drug delivery system is better than the monotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates the multiple combined therapy based on the gold nanoshell system would be a promising translational treatment for gastric cancer.