Piezobiomimetic delivery nanosystem converts cold tumors to hot by parallel PANoptosis/STING activation in hepatocellular carcinoma

  • Sci Adv. 2026 Jun 19;12(25):eaea6844. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aea6844.
Jiaoting E  1 Yuxuan Zhao  2 Xiaoling Zhang  1 Qiuqi Zhang  1 Ying Xu  1 Shanshan Liu  1 He Ding  2 Jiuxin Zhu  3 Piaoping Yang  2 Rui Xie  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Digestive Internal Medicine, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin 150081, P. R. China.
  • 2. Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, P. R. China.
  • 3. Department of Pharmacology (State-Province Key Laboratories of Biomedicine Pharmaceutics of China, Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Medicine Research, Ministry of Education), College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, P. R. China.
Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a challenge for therapeutic efficacy in converting cold tumors into hot ones. Herein, doping defect-engineered manganese perovskite piezoelectric nanocubes (Mn-BaZrO3, MBZO) integrated miltirone biomimetic delivery within tumor-derived nanovesicles are proposed for the parallel pyroptosis-apoptosis-necroptosis (PANoptosis) and the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway activation to reshape the immune microenvironment, leading to tumor regression in HCC. Homologously targeting HCC cells, MBZO nanocubes accumulated and produced exogenous Reactive Oxygen Species through the piezocatalytic effect. Specifically, miltirone accelerated oxidative stress amplification, potentially serving as an inducer of programmed cell death in HCC. Then, PANoptosis was activated to disrupt the cell barrier and release damage-associated molecular patterns, promoting immunogenicity. Concurrently, MBZO synergistically stimulated the STING pathway to evoke pro-inflammatory responses and elicit immunogenic cell death, triggering effector immune cell deployment (EICD). The piezobiomimetic delivery nanosystem bridged innate immunity activation and EICD to convert cold tumors into hot tumors and suppress tumor growth, thereby enhancing the efficacy of piezoimmunotherapy in HCC.

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