Nanotherapeutics Plus Immunotherapy in Oncology: Who Brings What to the Table?

Abstract

While the number of oncology-related nanotherapeutics and immunotherapies is constantly increasing, cancer patients still suffer from a lack of efficacy and treatment resistance. Among the investigated strategies, patient selection and combinations appear to be of great hope. This review will focus on combining nanotherapeutics and immunotherapies together, how they can dually optimize each other to face such limits, bringing us into a new field called nano-immunotherapy. While looking at current clinical trials, we will expose how passive immunotherapies, such as antibodies and ADCs, can boost nanoparticle tumor uptake and tumor cell internalization. Conversely, we will study how immunotherapies can benefit from nanotherapeutics which can optimize their lipophilicity, permeability, and distribution (e.g., greater tumor uptake, BBB crossing, etc.), tumor, tumor microenvironment, and immune system targeting properties.

Synergistic Pro-Apoptotic Effect of a Cyclic RGD Peptide-Conjugated Magnetic Mesoporous Therapeutic Nanosystem on Hepatocellular Carcinoma HepG2 Cells

“…Mesoporous silica, a highly porous material, has attracted extensive interest as a coating layer for SPIO NPs due to its low cytotoxicity, stability, excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility, high drug-loading and delivery performance, and controlled drug release [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Herein, mesoporous silica was employed to achieve favorable dispersibility, stability, and biocompatibility of SPIO NPs.…”

Macrophage Reprogramming via the Modulation of Unfolded Protein Response with siRNA-Loaded Magnetic Nanoparticles in a TAM-like Experimental Model

“…Indeed, in oncology, the use of nanomaterials (1–200 nm), whose behavior can be described with neither classical physics nor quantum mechanics, has often been designated over the years as an evolution of the “magic bullet” concept, since they could constitute suitable platforms to develop the next generation of programmable and personalized nanomedicine [ 25 ]. In this scenario, the convergence of immunotherapy and nanotechnology is surely generating substantial momentum for improving cancer treatment [ 26 , 27 ]. Among a large variety of nanomaterials with both therapeutic and diagnostic applications, iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs), such as magnetite crystals (Fe 3 O 4 ), have received considerable interest as nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery to enhance and ensure the high specificity of immunotherapies [ 28 ].…”