Institute of Materials Science & Engineering, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, SwitzerlandCH-1015.
Biomater Sci. 2019 Feb 26;7(3):733-749. doi: 10.1039/c8bm01470a.
Immunotherapy can harness the power of host's immune system to fight cancer. In the last few decades, tremendous progress has been made in this field, with remarkable clinical successes achieved consisting of a durable response in a fraction of patients. However, there are enormous challenges to extending this therapy to the majority of cancer patients while retaining minimal adverse effects. Local immunotherapy is a promising approach for concentrating immunomodulation in situ without systemic exposure, therefore minimizing systemic toxicities. More importantly, local immunomodulation can still lead to systemic effects that confer overall anticancer immunity to eradicate disseminated diseases. To facilitate these local immunotherapies, a wide range of biomaterials have been developed as delivery systems to protect the locally injected immune-related therapeutics and extend their retention. Surgery-free injectable macroscale biomaterials are one of the most promising classes of biomaterials developed to date, as they are suitable for minimally invasive injection with needles or catheters and form a biocompatible three-dimensional matrix in situ as a drug-depot for controlled local delivery. In this mini-review, we provide an overview of the recent advancements in applying injectable macroscale biomaterials in local cancer immunotherapy by highlighting some recent examples. We compare various injectable biomaterials with different gelation mechanisms and discuss their applications in the delivery of immunomodulators, immune cells, and cancer vaccines. We also discuss current challenges and provide a perspective for the future development of injectable macroscale biomaterials in cancer immunotherapy.
免疫疗法可以利用宿主的免疫系统来对抗癌症。在过去的几十年中，该领域取得了巨大的进展，为数以千计的患者带来了持久的反应，这是显著的临床成功。然而，将这种疗法扩展到大多数癌症患者，并将不良反应降到最低，仍然存在巨大的挑战。局部免疫疗法是一种很有前途的方法，可以在不进行全身暴露的情况下在局部集中免疫调节，从而最大限度地减少全身毒性。更重要的是，局部免疫调节仍然可以产生全身性效应，从而赋予全身抗肿瘤免疫力，以根除播散性疾病。为了促进这些局部免疫疗法的发展，已经开发了广泛的生物材料作为递送系统，以保护局部注射的免疫相关治疗药物，并延长其保留时间。非手术可注射宏观生物材料是迄今为止开发的最有前途的一类生物材料之一，因为它们适合用针或导管进行微创注射，并在原位形成生物相容的三维基质作为药物储存库，以实现局部的控释。在这篇小型综述中，我们通过强调一些最近的例子，概述了可注射宏观生物材料在局部癌症免疫治疗中的最新进展。我们比较了具有不同凝胶机制的各种可注射生物材料，并讨论了它们在免疫调节剂、免疫细胞和癌症疫苗传递中的应用。我们还讨论了当前的挑战，并对可注射宏观生物材料在癌症免疫治疗中的未来发展提供了展望。
