FlexiPlasma Microcatheter–Embolic Material (FPM‐EM) Platform: A Non‐Inflammatory Pyroptosis Strategy for Precision Hepatocellular Carcinoma Therapy

作者：Changhong Li, Hongwei Cheng, Ziqi Zhuang, Fei Cao, Hui Liu, Liqian Zhao, Syed Faheem Askari Rizvi, Kanqi Wang, Liuyin Yang, Xiaowei Lu, Yating Zheng, Yu Zhang, Pan He, Jingsong Mao, Xiaofei Wen, Liang Zhang, Lili Jiang, Jinyong Lin, D. Li, Chengchao Chu, Yun Zeng, Zhixiang Lu, Lijun Liu, Erik W. Thompson, Zhitong Chen, Peiyu Wang, Gang Liu · 发表于：Small Methods · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1002/smtd.202500231 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Heme Oxygenase-1 and Carbon Monoxide、Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics、Plasma Applications and Diagnostics

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a global challenge, with conventional locoregional therapies like transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) lacking tumor specificity and promoting metastasis and inflammation. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) offers a tumor-selective ablation strategy but suffers from limited tissue penetration. To overcome this, the FlexiPlasma microcatheter (FPM) is developed, integrating flexible non-metallic microtubes and ring-shaped electrodes for precise CAP delivery to deep tumors. The optimized FPM-generated CAP eliminates cytotoxic UV and ozone while inducing tumor-specific pyroptosis via a ROS/Caspase-8/GSDMC pathway. Gasdermin-C (GSDMC) is highly expressed in liver tumors but absent in normal tissues, ensuring selective targeting with minimal inflammation. FPM is combined with embolic material (EM), PPP@CD hydrogel, enhancing injectability, tumor embolization, and sustained drug release. This FPM-EM strategy potentiates antitumor immunity, particularly CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses. These findings establish FPM-EM as a safe, effective, and minimally invasive therapy for HCC, revealing a non-inflammatory pyroptosis mechanism and broadening the potential of CAP-based cancer treatments. The FPM-EM combination offers promising new therapeutic options for HCC, addressing the limitations of TACE. Furthermore, the FPM-EM platform can be extended to the interventional therapy of other tumors and adapted to incorporate various drugs and nano-/micro-materi...