In Vivo Combined Photoacoustic Imaging and Photothermal Treatment of HPV‐Negative Head and Neck Carcinoma with NIR‐Responsive Non‐Persistent Plasmon Nano‐Architectures

The combination of photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and photothermal therapy(PTT) is an attractive approach in cancer management due to the non-invasivefeatures combined with real-time imaging and selective tissue damage bynon-ionizing radiation. This approach is especially appealing for Head andNeck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) management, where up to 40% ofpatients require modifications of the treatment regimen. On the other hand,most of the agents developed for PAI/PTT suffer from persistence orre-shaping issues. Here, a unique non-persistent plasmon nano-architecture(tNAs-IRDye) is presented that simultaneously acts as a contrast agent forPAI and as a photothermal transducer for PTT. The tNAs-IRDye are fullycharacterized and evaluated in vitro and ex vivo, and their performance astheranostic agents is assessed in HPV-negative HNSCC murine models. Asignificant modulation of tumor growth is obtained in vivo upon intratumoralinjection of tNAs-IRDye and subsequent NIR irradiation compared to thesolely irradiated control. The outcomes of this study exhibit a noteworthypotential to foster the development of innovative clinical strategies for themanagement of HPV-negative head and neck carcinoma.