Nanotechnology-enabled immunoengineering approaches to advance therapeutic applications

Abstract

Immunotherapy has reached clinical success in the last decade, with the emergence of new and effective treatments such as checkpoint blockade therapy and CAR T-cell therapy that have drastically improved patient outcomes. Still, these therapies can be improved to limit off-target effects, mitigate systemic toxicities, and increase overall efficacies. Nanoscale engineering offers strategies that enable researchers to attain these goals through the manipulation of immune cell functions, such as enhancing immunity against cancers and pathogens, controlling the site of immune response, and promoting tolerance via the delivery of small molecule drugs or biologics. By tuning the properties of the nanomaterials, such as size, shape, charge, and surface chemistry, different types of immune cells can be targeted and engineered, such as dendritic cells for immunization, or T cells for promoting adaptive immunity. Researchers have come to better understand the critical role the immune system plays in the progression of pathologies besides cancer, and developing nanoengineering approaches that seek to harness the potential of immune cell activities can lead to favorable outcomes for the treatment of injuries and diseases.

How Advanced are Cancer Immuno-Nanotherapeutics? A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

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Regulating the microenvironment with nanomaterials: Potential strategies to ameliorate COVID-19

“…In turn, immune cells are stimulated by proinflammatory cytokines, leading to immune dysregulation in patients. Nanomaterials are widely studied in biology and medicine due to their excellent chemical and physical properties, such as intervening in the expression and signaling pathways of immune cells through their intrinsic properties or loaded drugs 171 , 172 , 173 . Therefore, the introduction of NPs to target immune cells may be another inspired strategy for COVID-19 174 , 175 , such as the most important macrophages and neutrophils involved in the immune response activated by SARS-CoV-2.…”

Recent Advances in Aptamer-Based Sensors for Sensitive Detection of Neurotransmitters

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