Enhancement of CD8+ T-Cell-Mediated Tumor Immunotherapy via Magnetic Hyperthermia

Magnetic hyperthermia (MHT) uses magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONs) to irradiate heat when subjected to an alternating magnetic field (AMF), which then trigger a series of biological effects to realize rapid tumor-killing effects. With the deepening in research, MHT has also shown significant potential in achieving antitumor immunity. On the other hand, immunotherapy in cancer treatment has gained increasing attention over recent years and excellent results have generally been reported. Using MHT to activate antitumor immunity and clarifying its synergistic mechanism, i. e., immunogenic cell death (ICD) and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) reversal, can achieve a synergistically enhanced therapeutic effect on primary tumors and metastatic lesions, and this can prevent cancer recurrence and metastasis, which thus prolong survival. In this review, we discussed the role of MHT when utilized alone and combining MHT with other treatments (such as radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and immune checkpoint blockers) in the process of tumor immunotherapy, including antigen release, dendritic cells (DCs) maturation, and activation of CD8⁺ cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Finally, the challenges and future development of current MHT and immunotherapy are discussed.     

Accurately Detecting Trace-Level Infectious Agents by an Electro-Enhanced Graphene Transistor

For epidemic prevention and control, molecular diagnostic techniques such as field-effect transistor (FET) biosensors is developed for rapid screening of infectious agents, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, SARS-CoV-2, rhinovirus, and others. They obtain results within a few minutes but exhibit diminished sensitivity (<75%) in unprocessed biological samples due to insufficient recognition of low-abundance analytes. Here, an electro-enhanced strategy is developed for the precise detection of trace-level infectious agents by liquid-gate graphene field-effect transistors (LG-GFETs). The applied gate bias preconcentrates analytes electrostatically at the sensing interface, contributing to a 10-fold signal enhancement and a limit of detection down to 5 × 10⁻¹⁶ g mL⁻¹ MPT64 protein in serum. Of 402 participants, sensitivity in tuberculosis, COVID-19 and human rhinovirus assays reached 97.3% (181 of 186), and specificity is 98.6% (213 of 216) with a response time of <60 s. This study solves a long-standing dilemma that response speed and result accuracy of molecular diagnostics undergo trade-offs in unprocessed biological samples, holding unique promise in high-quality and population-wide screening of infectious diseases.