Hydrogel-By-Design: Smart Delivery System for Cancer Immunotherapy

Abstract

Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising strategy for cancer treatment, in which durable immune responses were generated in patients with malignant tumors. In the past decade, biomaterials have played vital roles as smart drug delivery systems for cancer immunotherapy to achieve both enhanced therapeutic benefits and reduced side effects. Hydrogels as one of the most biocompatible and versatile biomaterials have been widely applied in localized drug delivery systems due to their unique properties, such as loadable, implantable, injectable, degradable and stimulus responsible. Herein, we have briefly summarized the recent advances on hydrogel-by-design delivery systems including the design of hydrogels and their applications for delivering of immunomodulatory molecules (e.g., cytokine, adjuvant, checkpoint inhibitor, antigen), immune cells and environmental regulatory substances in cancer immunotherapy. We have also discussed the challenges and future perspectives of hydrogels in the development of cancer immunotherapy for precision medicine at the end.

Development of Injectable and Biodegradable Needle-Type Starch Implant for Effective Intratumoral Drug Delivery and Distribution

“…12,13 To address this issue, various methods have been developed to reduce the amount of drug absorbed into the blood vessels and enhance the continuous release of the drug using different drug delivery systems, such as hydrogels, microneedles, and implant. [14][15][16] However, the hydrogel may not be injected at the target location inside the tumor because of the high internal pressure and may be easily transferred to non-target sites. [17][18][19] Additionally, the drug may not spread throughout the tumor but only within the vicinity of the hydrogel.…”

Three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds as powerful weapons for tumor immunotherapy

“…The 3D macroscale platforms have been widely investigated as drug delivery systems [ 102 , 103 ]. Different kinds of immunomodulatory agents could be simply incorporated into them via gentle procedures.…”

Contact‐Free Remote Manipulation of Hydrogel Properties Using Light‐Triggerable Nanoparticles: A Materials Science Perspective for Biomedical Applications

“…When injected into the tumor site, the hydrogel undergoes swelling and degradation due to the low pH of the tumor, releasing the loaded therapeutic agent, thereby stimulating dendritic cells or pre‐stimulated tumor‐specific T cells to attract immune cells to the tumor site. [ 85,90 ]…”