Open Access Review

Research progress of nanomedicine for tumor immunotherapy

by Xingyi Wan a Mengyan Jiang b  and  Shriya Madan c,* orcid
a
Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Systems, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
b
College of Biological Resources and Environmental Engineering, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
c
University of Maryland, Maryland, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
CI  2023, 31; 3(1), 31; https://doi.org/10.58567/ci03010005
Received: 23 October 2023 / Accepted: 4 December 2023 / Published Online: 28 December 2023

Abstract

Cancer, a pervasive threat to human health, presents formidable challenges to traditional treatment approaches. Tumor immunotherapy has emerged as a promising strategy for combating malignancies by bolstering the body's immune response to thwart tumor metastasis and recurrence. Nonetheless, the intricacies of tumors, patient heterogeneity, and the presence of tumor-immunosuppressive microenvironments have limited the overall efficacy of immunotherapy, achieving only approximately a 20% success rate. In recent years, nanomaterials have garnered increasing attention in the realm of tumor immunotherapy due to their inherent advantages, such as excellent biocompatibility, precise targeting, and controlled drug release. Nanomaterials empower immunostimulatory molecules and therapeutic agents with the ability to specifically target tumors, amplify drug accumulation at tumor sites, facilitate local immune modulation, alleviate immunosuppressive microenvironments, and thereby enhance the effectiveness of tumor immunotherapy. This review provides an overview of the current state of immunotherapy and offers insights into the ongoing research progress surrounding various nanomaterials aimed at augmenting the efficacy of immunotherapy.


Copyright: © 2023 by Wan, Jiang and Madan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.