Thermal Enhancement of Capsaicin on Target Tissue Involved in Hyperthermia

Local thermal enhancement in target tissue is of great interest in tumor hyperthermia. In this study, we proposed a brand-new thermal enhancement protocol for tumor hyperthermia using heat generated from thermogenesis of capsaicin, which can safely deliver a totally localized heating to target tissue. A healthy male volunteer was recruited, whose partial areas of opisthenar and forearm were smeared with 1% (w/w) capsaicin solution, to determine the increase of thermogenesis in local area of human body. In addition, animal experiments on several healthy Kunming (KM) mice (20-22g) were performed to test the feasibility of this capsaicin based thermal enhancement method. Preliminary experiments on the volunteer showed an effective temperature increase in the skin area smeared with capsaicin solution. Animal experiments indicated that distinct enhancement in heating effect presents in the target tissue of mice where capsaicin solution was introduced. The thermal enhancement ability of capsaicin, therefore, suggests that capsaicin can be used as a potential therapeutic adjuvant to locally enhance heating effects in target tissue during tumor hyperthermia.