Nanovaccines for Cancer Prevention and Immunotherapy: An Update Review

Abstract

Cancer immunotherapy has received more and more attention from cancer researchers over the past few decades. Various methods such as cell therapy, immune checkpoint blockers, and cancer vaccines alone or in combination therapies have achieved relatively satisfactory results in cancer therapy. Among these immunotherapy-based methods, cancer vaccines alone have not yet had the necessary efficacy in the clinic. Therefore, nanomaterials have increased the efficacy and ef-fectiveness of cancer vaccines by increasing their half-life and durability, promoting tumor mi-croenvironment (TME) reprogramming, and enhancing their anti-tumor immunity with minimal toxicity. In this review, according to the latest studies, the structure and different types of nanovaccines, the mechanisms of these vaccines in cancer treatment, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these nanovaccines are discussed.

Recent Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy Delivery Modalities

“…Nano vaccines target antigens or components found exclusively in tumors or expressed in tumors. APCs such as macrophages and dendritic cells will come into contact with vaccine antigens [ 137 ]. Cell-, virus-, peptide-, DNA-, and mRNA-based vaccines have been shown to be effective in treating a variety of cancers.…”

Research Progress of Nanomedicine-Based Mild Photothermal Therapy in Tumor

“… 227 With these issues in mind, multiple NIR-responsive multifunctional nanovaccines, which generally include three components of nanocarriers, immunoadjuvants, and PTAs, have been developed. 228 On the one hand, the mild hyperthermia generated by PTAs under NIR irradiation can activate antigen presentation and recruit dendritic cells (DCs) via the exposure of TAAs, which are considered as “whole cancer cell vaccines” and optimal in situ cancer vaccines. 10 , 222 On the other hand, kinds of immunoadjuvants carried in nanovaccines are able to further improve the capture of tumor antigens by DCs and enhance the immune response of T cells.…”

“… 229 , 230 Besides the initial nanovaccines combining mPTT with immunoadjuvants, certain smart nanovaccines are also expected to realize robust and long-term antitumor immune response. 228 For instance, Sun et al constructed intelligent DCs (iDCs) as an advanced nanovaccine by coating IR-797 (PTA) loaded nanodots with a mature DC membrane ( Figure 12 ). 9 Unlike traditional NIR-responsive nanovaccines that activated immune responses in a single way by inducing antigen release, iDCs with mature DC membrane function could not only directly stimulate in situ T cells, but also entered draining lymph nodes to activate T cell responses, which subsequently migrated to tumor regions.…”

Evaluation of in vitro immunostimulatory and cytotoxic effects of recombinant survivin protein in combination with doxorubicin and breast cancer antigen-loaded polycaprolactone nanoparticles

“…Immunotherapy is a novel treatment method that boosts the immune system in order to activate it to fight and eliminate cancer cells. Despite all of its advantages, certain risks and barriers to immunotherapy exist, such as undesired immune responses, toxicity and skin allergies (Akkın et al 2021, Fang et al 2022. Nowadays, because of the favorable features of nanoparticles (NPs), such as stability, non-toxicity, improved cellular uptake, specific cell targeting, systemic drug circulation and efficient drug delivery (Tarhini et al 2017, Higino andFrança 2022), they have become the most promising tools for the treatment of various cancer types (Mintz andLeblanc 2021, Deng et al 2022).…”