Chonnam National University Professor Park Inkyu's Team Develops Nanoparticle-Based Liver Cancer Treatment Method

Combining Phototherapy and Immunotherapy... Overcoming the Limitations of Conventional Treatments

Professor Inkyu Park's research team at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Chonnam National University, has developed an innovative liver cancer treatment using nanoparticles in collaboration with Professor Jongsu Cho's team at Seoul National University. The photo shows a schematic diagram of the liver cancer treatment using nanoparticles. Provided by Chonnam National University.

Chonnam National University announced on the 23rd that the research team led by Professor Park Inkyu from the Department of Biomedical Science, in collaboration with Professor Cho Jongsu's team from Seoul National University, has developed an innovative liver cancer treatment using nanoparticles.

The joint research team at Chonnam National University proposed a treatment method that effectively targets hepatocellular carcinoma using nanoparticles called 'Pulu', enabling selective action on liver cancer cells. These nanoparticles, equipped with near-infrared dyes and TLR7/8 immune agonists, destroy cancer cells and simultaneously activate immune responses when exposed to near-infrared light, thereby maximizing therapeutic effects and suggesting new possibilities for liver cancer treatment.

This treatment is significant in that it demonstrates the potential to overcome the limitations of conventional liver cancer therapies by utilizing the synergistic effect of combining photothermal therapy and immunotherapy.

In particular, the novel photoimmunotherapy technology developed in this study is expected to be applicable to the delivery of various drugs, indicating potential expansion into diverse fields in the future.

This research was supported by the Immunotherapy Innovation Center project under the Original Technology Development Program of the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Research Foundation’s Complex Cancer Immunotherapy Center, and the Mid-Career Researcher Program, and was recently published online in the 'Journal of Nanobiotechnology'.

Professor Park Inkyu said, "Considering the limitations of existing hepatocellular carcinoma treatments, the nanoparticle-based dual therapy developed in this study could become a very powerful method and a new breakthrough in liver cancer treatment."

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