Advances in screening hyperthermic nanomedicines in 3D tumor models

abstract

Hyperthermic nanomedicines are particularly relevant for tackling human cancer, providing a valuable alternative to conventional therapeutics. The early-stage preclinical performance evaluation of such anti-cancer treatments is conventionally performed in flat 2D cell cultures that do not mimic the volumetric heat transfer occurring in human tumors. Recently, improvements in bioengineered 3D in vitro models have unlocked the opportunity to recapitulate major tumor microenvironment hallmarks and generate highly informative readouts that can contribute to accelerating the discovery and validation of efficient hyperthermic treatments. Leveraging on this, herein we aim to showcase the potential of engineered physiomimetic 3D tumor models for evaluating the preclinical efficacy of hyperthermic nanomedicines, featuring the main advantages and design considerations under diverse testing scenarios. The most recent applications of 3D tumor models for screening photo- and/or magnetic nanomedicines will be discussed, either as standalone systems or in combinatorial approaches with other anti-cancer therapeutics. We envision that breakthroughs toward developing multi-functional 3D platforms for hyperthermia onset and follow-up will contribute to a more expedited discovery of top-performing hyperthermic therapies in a preclinical setting before their in vivo screening. Integrating the advances of emerging hyperthermia techniques with 3D tumor models and non-invasive temperature control systems can contribute to identifying top-performing hyperthermic nanomedicines in preclinical evaluation stages.

keywords

DUAL-PHASE-LAG; IRON-OXIDE NANOPARTICLES; CANCER STEM-CELLS; BIO-HEAT TRANSFER; BREAST-CANCER; MAGNETIC NANOPARTICLES; PHOTOTHERMAL THERAPY; IN-VITRO; LOCAL HYPERTHERMIA; DRUG-DELIVERY

subject category

Chemistry; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Materials Science

authors

Soeiro, JF; Sousa, FL; Monteiro, MV; Gaspar, VM; Silva, NJO; Mano, JF

Groups

G2 - Photonic, Electronic and Magnetic Materials
G5 - Biomimetic, Biological and Living Materials

Projects

Collaboratory for Emerging Technologies, CoLab (EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES)

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020)

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDP/50011/2020)

Produção de Plataformas Microcapsulares 3D+ para Avaliação Laboratorial em Larga Escala de Novas Terapias Combinatórias para o Cancro do Pâncreas (PANGEIA)

Development of 4D wireless thermometry to target tumor ablation (PTDC/NAN-MAT/3901/2020)

acknowledgements

This research was funded by project CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020, financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology/MCTES. This work was also supported by the Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizac & atilde;o (POCI), in the component FEDER, and by national funds (OE) through FCT/MCTES, in the scope of the projects PANGEIA (PTDC/BTM-SAL/30503/2017). The authors acknowledge the financial support by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Doctoral Grants (2022.10039.BD, Joana Soeiro, DFA/BD/7692/2020, Maria V. Monteiro) and through an Assistant Researcher contract (DOI: 10.54499/2022.02106.CEECIND/CP1720/CT0028, Vitor M. Gaspar). Additionally, this work was supported by Grants PTDC/NAN-MAT/3901/2020 (DOI: 10.54499/PTDC/NAN-MAT/3901/2020 supported by POCI, FEDER and FCT/MCTES) and Grant ERC-2019-CoG-865437 from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.