Imagine a single medicine that doesn’t just attack a tumor, but also heats it to death, chokes it with toxic gas, and rallies the immune system to finish the job. That’s not science fiction—it’s science, and it’s happening now in cancer research labs.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Controlled Release, our team has unveiled a powerful new cancer therapy built around a tiny golden weapon: a nanoparticle named TAGNO. Developed by researchers at the University of Warwick in collaboration with Chonnam National University in South Korea, TAGNO is designed to treat colon cancer using a triple-threat strategy—combining heat, gas, and immune activation.

At the heart of TAGNO is a gold nanorod. Gold isn’t just a shiny metal in this case; it has unique optical properties that allow it to heat up when exposed to near-infrared (NIR) laser light. That heat is used in photothermal therapy (PTT)—a method of raising the temperature inside tumours to weaken or destroy cancer cells. But this is just the first punch.

Layered onto this gold core is a special coating that holds a gas-generating compound. When the nanoparticle is hit with NIR light, it doesn’t just get hot—it also releases nitric oxide (NO), a gas molecule with surprising anti-cancer potential. In low doses, NO helps cells grow, but in high concentrations—like those delivered by TAGNO—it becomes toxic to tumors. Even better, NO reacts with the high levels of oxidative stress inside tumours to create peroxynitrite, a molecule that damages cancer cells from the inside out, especially their fragile mitochondria.

But TAGNO’s most remarkable feature may be what happens after the cancer cells begin to die. As they break apart, they release distress signals that alert the immune system. This type of inflammatory cell death, called pyroptosis, doesn’t go unnoticed—it lights up the tumour like a distress flare, calling in immune cells such as macrophages and cytotoxic T cells to attack not just the treated tumour, but others nearby as well. The study found that in mice, treating one tumour with TAGNO helped shrink an untreated tumour on the other side of the body—an effect known as the abscopal effect, and a holy grail in cancer immunotherapy.

Importantly, the researchers designed TAGNO to be precise and controllable. The nanoparticle remains stable in the bloodstream, accumulates in tumours, and only releases its toxic payload when activated by light. That level of control helps avoid damage to healthy tissues and reduces side effects—an ongoing challenge in traditional chemotherapy.

In lab experiments and animal models, the results were striking. Mice treated with TAGNO and exposed to NIR light showed significant tumor shrinkage, improved immune responses, and no major side effects. Even more exciting, the treatment reprogrammed parts of the immune system that cancer often shuts down, helping the body to keep fighting long after the initial therapy.

While TAGNO is still in the preclinical stage, the implications are profound. Combining multiple therapies into one nanoparticle means fewer drugs, more precision, and potentially, better outcomes for patients. Colon cancer remains one of the most common cancers worldwide, and innovative treatments like this could offer new hope where current therapies fall short.

Science doesn’t often hand us elegant solutions. But with TAGNO, it might just have found one—smart, targeted, and devastating to cancer in three distinct ways.

Read further in Journal of Controlled Release: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365925000136?via%3Dihub