John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States.
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States.
Acc Chem Res. 2020 Sep 15;53(9):1749-1760. doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.0c00341. Epub 2020 Aug 13.
A major function of the immune system is to detect threat from foreign invaders, tissue damage, or cancer and to mount a counter response that resolves the threat, restores homeostasis, and supplies immunological memory to prevent a second assault. Our increasing understanding of the immune system has opened up numerous avenues for modulating immune responses against infections, cancer, and autoimmunity. However, agents used for immunomodulation have been traditionally administered systemically via bolus injection, leading to unintended consequences by disrupting homeostasis at nontarget sites. Consequently, systemic hyperactivation and hypoactivation can result from bolus administration of immune-activators and immunosuppressants, respectively. Macroscale biomaterial scaffolds can instead be placed at the intended target site to provide both localized, controlled release of immunomodulatory agents and control over local immune cell trafficking and function, potentially maximizing therapeutic efficacy and limiting systemic exposure. These scaffolds have found utility in the area of cancer immunotherapy, especially cancer vaccination where controlled release of factors such as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and the local presentation of tumor antigen and danger signals lead to the recruitment of immature dendritic cells and facilitate their activation and antigen presentation. These cells eventually migrate into secondary lymphoid organs where they prime tumor specific T cells for downstream tumor clearance. Scaffolds can also be used in adoptive T cell therapy to generate large numbers of potent antigen specific T cells or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in vitro for subsequent delivery to patients. Macroscale biomaterial scaffolds have also found utility beyond cancer immunotherapy and have been developed to promote immune tolerance by regulatory T cell induction and to expedite tissue regeneration. The design of these macroscale biomaterial scaffolds considers their biocompatibility, biodegradability, mode of delivery, porosity, and kinetics of therapeutic cargo release. Consequently, the numerous approaches that have been developed to fabricate biomaterial scaffolds are aimed at tuning these parameters to achieve the desired therapeutic outcome. This Account will discuss the use of biomaterial scaffolds as niches for immunomodulation and will focus on (1) approaches that have been used to fabricate various biomaterial systems being employed as niches for immunomodulation and (2) how these biomaterial systems have been used to modulate immune responses, specifically in area of cancer immunotherapy, where we will discuss the role of macroscale biomaterial scaffolds for vaccination and in vitro T cell expansion. We will also briefly discuss the utility of biomaterial scaffolds beyond cancer, drawing examples from tolerance and tissue regeneration.
免疫系统的主要功能是检测来自外来入侵者、组织损伤或癌症的威胁,并进行反击以消除威胁、恢复体内平衡并提供免疫记忆,以防止再次受到攻击。我们对免疫系统的认识不断加深,为调节针对感染、癌症和自身免疫的免疫反应开辟了许多途径。然而,传统上用于免疫调节的药物是通过大剂量注射系统给药的,这会导致非靶向部位的体内平衡被破坏,从而产生意想不到的后果。因此,免疫激活剂和免疫抑制剂的大剂量给药分别会导致全身过度激活和激活不足。相比之下,将宏观生物材料支架放置在预期的靶部位,可以提供免疫调节剂的局部、控制释放,并控制局部免疫细胞的迁移和功能,从而有可能最大限度地提高治疗效果并限制全身暴露。这些支架在癌症免疫治疗领域得到了应用,特别是癌症疫苗接种领域,其中控制释放粒细胞-巨噬细胞集落刺激因子(GM-CSF)等因子以及局部呈现肿瘤抗原和危险信号,可导致未成熟树突状细胞的募集,并促进其激活和抗原呈递。这些细胞最终迁移到次级淋巴器官,在那里为下游肿瘤清除作用激活肿瘤特异性 T 细胞。支架还可用于过继性 T 细胞治疗,以在体外产生大量有效的抗原特异性 T 细胞或嵌合抗原受体(CAR)T 细胞,然后输送给患者。宏观生物材料支架在癌症免疫治疗之外也有应用,已被开发用于通过诱导调节性 T 细胞来促进免疫耐受,并加速组织再生。这些宏观生物材料支架的设计考虑了它们的生物相容性、生物降解性、给药方式、孔隙率和治疗货物释放的动力学。因此,已经开发了许多方法来制造生物材料支架,旨在调整这些参数以实现预期的治疗效果。本专题讨论了将生物材料支架用作免疫调节小生境的方法,并将重点介绍:(1)用于制造各种生物材料系统的方法,这些系统被用作免疫调节小生境;(2)这些生物材料系统如何用于调节免疫反应,特别是在癌症免疫治疗领域,我们将讨论宏观生物材料支架在疫苗接种和体外 T 细胞扩增方面的作用。我们还将简要讨论生物材料支架在癌症以外的应用,从耐受性和组织再生方面举例说明。
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