Mohammadzadeh Vahideh, Atapour-Mashhad Hoda, Shahvali Sedigheh, Salehi Bahardokht, Shaban Mina, Shirzad Maryam, Salahvarzi Afsaneh, Mohammadi Marzieh
Student Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Department of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
J Nanobiotechnology. 2025 Jul 28;23(1):545. doi: 10.1186/s12951-025-03613-6.
Tumor immunotherapy has appeared as a groundbreaking method in cancer therapy, which destroys cancer cells through identification and attack by stimulating the body's immune system. Despite its rapid development, there are serious challenges to overcome. Efficient delivery of the immunotherapeutic cargos to the tumor microenvironment (TME), activation, and systemic adverse reactions have hindered their therapeutic application. Due to their biocompatibility, self-healing ability, and stable localized drug delivery to the tumor niche, hydrogels are regarded as potent delivery platforms. Tailor-made 3D hydrogels from various polymers have shown high drug-loading capacity, which could deliver different immunomodulators to activate effector T cells and enhance immunotherapy efficiency. Injectable hydrogels have also gained significant attention as carriers for tumor vaccines and cell delivery due to their minimal invasiveness encapsulation of various immunotherapeutics, protecting them from degradation and triggering a local immune response. This article reviews recent advances in using hydrogels as immunotherapeutic and cell delivery platforms in cancer immunotherapy, highlighting their ability to overcome the limitations of current delivery systems. In addition, their structure and functional modifications in the development of stimuli-responsive hydrogels, injectable and multifunctional hydrogels are further discussed. Prospects and obstacles in the development of hydrogel-based cancer immunotherapy are also examined.
肿瘤免疫疗法已成为癌症治疗中的一种开创性方法，它通过刺激人体免疫系统进行识别和攻击来摧毁癌细胞。尽管其发展迅速，但仍有严峻挑战需要克服。免疫治疗药物向肿瘤微环境（TME）的有效递送、激活以及全身不良反应阻碍了它们的治疗应用。由于水凝胶具有生物相容性、自愈能力以及向肿瘤微环境稳定递送局部药物的能力，因此被视为有效的递送平台。由各种聚合物定制的三维水凝胶显示出高载药能力，能够递送不同的免疫调节剂以激活效应T细胞并提高免疫治疗效率。可注射水凝胶由于其对各种免疫治疗药物的微创封装、保护它们不被降解并引发局部免疫反应，也作为肿瘤疫苗和细胞递送载体受到了广泛关注。本文综述了水凝胶在癌症免疫治疗中作为免疫治疗和细胞递送平台的最新进展，强调了它们克服当前递送系统局限性的能力。此外，还进一步讨论了它们在刺激响应性水凝胶、可注射和多功能水凝胶开发中的结构和功能修饰。还研究了基于水凝胶的癌症免疫治疗开发中的前景和障碍。
