Nanomaterials as Smart Immunomodulator Delivery System for Enhanced Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Immunomodulatory therapeutics, which is conducive to overcoming tumor tolerance and restoring normal immune responses, has been proposed as a promising approach for enhanced cancer therapy and clinical advancement. However, issues including cytokine syndrome, inefficient delivery, hepatic dysfunction, and severe adverse reactions remain to be resolved. It is particularly critical to develop delivery technologies to overcome these limitations and further improve antitumor efficacy. With the continuous development of materials science, biomaterials have been widely used in the field of cancer treatment and have also provided exciting solutions to overcome the bottleneck of immunomodulatory therapeutics. A range of biomaterials, especially nanomaterials, has been developed as a local immunomodulatory platform to enhance targeted delivery, maintain drug stability, and reduce toxicity and side effects. In addition to single immunomodulatory therapeutics, nanomaterials have been demonstrated to possess significant potential in immunomodulatory therapeutics-based synergistic therapies, especially in combination with phototherapy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immune checkpoint blockade. In this review, as background to the discussion of immunomodulatory therapeutics, we first described the mechanisms of action of multiple immunomodulators and discussed their current targeting agents. On this basis, we highlighted the latest advances in the use of nanomaterials-assisted immunomodulatory therapeutics and combination therapy to enhance anticancer immunity. In addition, current challenges and further promises for immunomodulatory therapeutics were also presented.

Biomaterials and nanomaterials for sustained release vaccine delivery

“…This overview will focus on biomaterials that provide sustained release in vivo for vaccines against infectious disease. Several reviews focus more specifically on cancer (Abdou et al, 2020;Yan et al, 2020;Yuan, Liu, Wang, Sun, & Chen, 2020;Zhang, Billingsley, & Mitchell, 2018;Y. Zhao, Guo, & Tang, 2018b), which we will not discuss.…”

“…This overview will focus on biomaterials that provide sustained release in vivo for vaccines against infectious disease. Several reviews focus more specifically on cancer (Abdou et al, 2020; J. Li et al, 2020; Yan et al, 2020; Yuan, Liu, Wang, Sun, & Chen, 2020; Zhang, Billingsley, & Mitchell, 2018; Y. Zhao, Guo, & Tang, 2018b), which we will not discuss. Several excellent reviews are available that go into depth on particular types of biomaterials, and we have made an effort to direct readers to reviews as appropriate.…”

Discotic material hexakis(4‐carboxyphenylethynyl)benzene inhibits Escherichia coli growth via the glycolysis pathway

“…Even when cell entry is permitted, synthetic chemicals normally have a small volume, and therefore a short retention period in the body after their uptake 9 . These small chemicals have recently been embedded in polymers, 10 liposomes, 2 or nanoparticles 11 to increase the efficiency of their transportation and to improve their retention times 12 . Discotic materials with planar and nanoparticle functions 13,14 are potential carriers of these chemicals and should increase their bioavailability; therefore, we investigated their toxicity based on their inhibition of Escherichia coli growth as well as a simple proteomic analysis.…”

Engineered Multifunctional Nano‐ and Biological Materials for Cancer Immunotherapy

“…Recent reviews [ 41–43 ] have extensively discussed the ability of nanomaterials to have an impact on cancer immunotherapy; however, these reviews do not focus specifically on the impact of multifunctional platforms that have shown to be effective in enhancing interactions with immune cells and improving cancer therapy response. Although cytokines and antigens for therapeutic delivery are biological materials and have been extensively reviewed, [ 44–46 ] this review will talk about the novelty of engineered biological materials such as multispecific and multifunctional antibodies.…”