Immune modulation of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells by melittin nanoparticles suppresses liver metastasis

Abstract Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) are responsible for the immunologic tolerance of liver which is a common site for visceral metastases, suggesting its potential role as an target for cancer immunotherapy. However, targeted modulation of LSECs is still not achieved thus far. Here, we report LSECs are specifically targeted and modulated by melittin nanoparticles (α-melittin-NPs). Intravital imaging shows that LSECs fluoresce within 20 s after intravenous injection of α-melittin-NPs. α-melittin-NPs trigger the activation of LSECs and lead to dramatic changes of cytokine/chemokine milieu in the liver, which switches the hepatic immunologic environment to the activated state. As a result, α-melittin-NPs resist the formation of metastatic lesions with high efficiency. More strikingly, the survival rate reaches 80% in the spontaneous liver metastatic tumor model. Our research provides support for the use of α-melittin-NPs to break LSEC-mediated immunologic tolerance, which opens an avenue to control liver metastasis through the immunomodulation of LSECs.