Delivery technologies for cancer immunotherapy

Integrating nanomedicine into clinical radiotherapy regimens

While the advancement of clinical radiotherapy was driven by technological innovations throughout the 20th century, continued improvement relies on rational combination therapies derived from biological insights. In this review, we highlight the importance of combination radiotherapy in the era of precision medicine. Specifically, we survey and summarize the areas of research where improved understanding in cancer biology will propel the field of radiotherapy forward by allowing integration of novel nanotechnology-based treatments.

Concepts of nanoparticle cellular uptake, intracellular trafficking, and kinetics in nanomedicine

Nanoparticle-based therapeutics and diagnostics are commonly referred to as nanomedicine and may significantly impact the future of healthcare. However, the clinical translation of these technologies is challenging. One of these challenges is the efficient delivery of nanoparticles to specific cell populations and subcellular targets in the body to elicit desired biological and therapeutic responses. It is critical for researchers to understand the fundamental concepts of how nanoparticles interact with biological systems to predict and control in vivo nanoparticle transport for improved clinical benefit. In this overview article, we review and discuss cellular internalization pathways, summarize the field`s understanding of how nanoparticle physicochemical properties affect cellular interactions, and explore and discuss intracellular nanoparticle trafficking and kinetics. Our overview may provide a valuable resource for researchers and may inspire new studies to expand our current understanding of nanotechnology-biology interactions at cellular and subcellular levels with the goal to improve clinical translation of nanomedicines.

Local biomaterials-assisted cancer immunotherapy to trigger systemic antitumor responses

Cancer immunotherapy by educating or stimulating patients’ own immune systems to attack cancer cells has demonstrated promising therapeutic responses in the clinic.

Smart injectable biogels based on hyaluronic acid bioconjugates finely substituted with poly(β-amino ester urethane) for cancer therapy

In situ-forming injectable biogels (IBGs) have been developed for the programmed delivery of potent chemotherapeutic drugs.

Size dependent anti-invasiveness of silver nanoparticles in lung cancer cells

The molecular mechanism of cancer cell death caused by silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) of different sizes is investigated. Compared with the larger nanoparticles, 13 nm AgNPs significantly inhibit the migration and invasiveness of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells, induce elevated reactive oxygen species and lead to NF-κB directed cellular apoptosis.

Size-dependent anti-invasiveness effect of AgNPs was determined using A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells. The 13 nm AgNPs can significantly inhibit the migration and invasion of A549 cells and induce the elevated level of ROS and NF-κB directed cell apoptosis.