Tumor Lysate-Loaded Lipid Hybrid Nanovaccine Collaborated with an Immune Checkpoint Antagonist for Combination Immunotherapy

Uplifting Antitumor Immunotherapy with Lymph-Node-Targeted and Ratio-Controlled Codelivery of Tumor Cell Lysate and Adjuvant

Cancer vaccines provide a potential strategy to cure patients. Their clinical utilization and efficacy is, however, limited by incomplete coverage of tumor neoantigens and unspecific and restricted activation of dendritic cells (DCs). Tumor cell lysates (TCLs) containing a broad spectrum of neoantigens, while are considered ideal in formulating personalized vaccines, induce generally poor antigen presentation and transient antitumor immune response. Here, intelligent polymersomal nanovaccines (PNVs) that quantitatively coload, efficiently codeliver, and responsively corelease TCL and CpG adjuvant to lymph node (LN) DCs are developed to boost antigen presentation and to induce specific and robust antitumor immunity. PNVs carrying CpG and ovalbumin (OVA) markedly enhance the maturation, antigen presentation, and downstream T cell activation ability of bone-marrow-derived dendritic cells and induce strong systemic immune response after tail base injection. Remarkably, PNVs carrying CpG and TCL cure 85% of B16-F10 melanoma-bearing mice and generate long-lasting anticancer immune memory at a low dose, protecting all cured mice from tumor rechallenge. These LN-directed PNVs being highly versatile and straightforward opens a new door for personalized cancer vaccines.

Harnessing Nanovaccines for Effective Immunization─A Special Concern on COVID-19: Facts, Fidelity, and Future Prospective

Nanotechnology has emerged as a transformative pathway in vaccine research and delivery. Nanovaccines, encompassing lipid and nonlipid formulations, exhibit considerable advantages over traditional vaccine techniques, including enhanced antigen stability, heightened immunogenicity, targeted distribution, and the potential for codelivery with adjuvants or immune modulators. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements and applications of lipid and non-lipid-based nanovaccines in current vaccination strategies for immunization. The review commences by outlining the fundamental concepts underlying lipid and nonlipid nanovaccine design before delving into the diverse components and production processes employed in their development. Subsequently, a comparative analysis of various nanocarriers is presented, elucidating their distinct physicochemical characteristics and impact on the immune response, along with preclinical and clinical studies. The discussion also highlights how nanotechnology enables the possibility of personalized and combined vaccination techniques, facilitating the creation of tailored nanovaccines to meet the individual patient needs. The ethical aspects concerning the use of nanovaccines, as well as potential safety concerns and public perception, are also addressed. The study underscores the gaps and challenges that must be overcome before adopting nanovaccines in clinical practice. This comprehensive analysis offers vital new insights into lipid and nonlipid nanovaccine status. It emphasizes the significance of continuous research, collaboration among interdisciplinary experts, and regulatory measures to fully unlock the potential of nanotechnology in enhancing immunization and ensuring a healthier, more resilient society.

Advanced Generation Therapeutics: Biomimetic Nanodelivery System for Tumor Immunotherapy

Tumor immunotherapy is a safe and effective strategy for precision medicine. However, immunotherapy for most cancer cases still ends in failure, with the root causes of the immunosuppressive and extraordinary heterogeneity of the solid tumors microenvironment. The emerging biomimetic nanodelivery system provides a promising tactic to improve the immunotherapy effect while reducing the adverse reactions on nontarget cells. Herein, we summarize the relationship between tumor occurrence and tumor immune microenvironment, mechanism of tumor immune escape, immunotherapy classification (including adoptive cellular therapy, cytokines, cancer vaccines, and immune checkpoint inhibitors) and recommend target cells for immunotherapy first, and then emphatically introduce the recent advances and applications of the latest biomimetic nanodelivery systems (e.g., immune cells, erythrocytes, tumor cells, platelets, bacteria) in tumor immunotherapy. Meanwhile, we separately summarize the application of tumor vaccines. Finally, the predictable challenges and perspectives in a forward exploration of biomimetic nanodelivery systems for tumor immunotherapy are also discussed.

Hybrid Nanomaterials for Cancer Immunotherapy

Nano-immunotherapy has been recognized as a highly promising strategy for cancer treatment in recent decades, which combines nanotechnology and immunotherapy to combat against tumors. Hybrid nanomaterials consisting of at least two constituents with distinct compositions and properties, usually organic and inorganic, have been engineered with integrated functions and enormous potential in boosting cancer immunotherapy. This review provides a summary of hybrid nanomaterials reported for cancer immunotherapy, including nanoscale metal-organic frameworks, metal-phenolic networks, mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles, metallofullerene nanomaterials, polymer-lipid, and biomacromolecule-based hybrid nanomaterials. The combination of immunotherapy with chemotherapy, chemodynamic therapy, radiotherapy, radiodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and sonodynamic therapy based on hybrid nanomaterials is also discussed. Finally, the current challenges and the prospects for designing hybrid nanomaterials and their application in cancer immunotherapy are outlined.

Harnessing Engineered Immune Cells and Bacteria as Drug Carriers for Cancer Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy continues to be in the spotlight of oncology therapy research in the past few years and has been proven to be a promising option to modulate one's innate and adaptive immune systems for cancer treatment. However, the poor delivery efficiency of immune agents, potential off-target toxicity, and nonimmunogenic tumors significantly limit its effectiveness and extensive application. Recently, emerging biomaterial-based drug carriers, including but not limited to immune cells and bacteria, are expected to be potential candidates to break the dilemma of immunotherapy, with their excellent natures of intrinsic tumor tropism and immunomodulatory activity. More than that, the tiny vesicles and physiological components derived from them have similar functions with their source cells due to the inheritance of various surface signal molecules and proteins. Herein, we presented representative examples about the latest advances of biomaterial-based delivery systems employed in cancer immunotherapy, including immune cells, bacteria, and their derivatives. Simultaneously, opportunities and challenges of immune cells and bacteria-based carriers are discussed to provide reference for their future application in cancer immunotherapy.

Synergy of Polydopamine Nanovaccine and Endostar Alginate Hydrogel for Improving Antitumor Immune Responses Against Colon Tumor

BACKGROUND

Tumor immunotherapy, a novel type of therapeutic treatment, has a wide range of applications with potentially prolonged benefits. However, current immunotherapy has a low overall response rate in treating a variety of tumors. Combination of immunotherapy with other therapies can improve the therapeutic response rates. The purpose of this work was to explore the potential of anti-angiogenic treatment in combination with tumor cell lysate loaded polydopamine nanoparticle vaccine as a therapeutic strategy for colon tumor.

METHODS

We grafted tumor cell lysate onto polydopamine nanoparticles as nano-vaccine (TCLN) and fabricated alginate hydrogel loaded with Endostar (EH), then detected characteristics of EH and TCLN. We also estimated the cytotoxicity of EH/TCLN in vitro. In the tumor-bearing mouse model, we evaluated the antitumor effect of EH/TCLN treatment, and developed the animal survival study. After performing the EH/TCLN treatment, we also analyzed T cells and DCs using flow cytometry, and determined T cell responses and tumor microenvironmental cytokines. At last, we assessed the effect of the EH/TCLN treatment on anti-angiogenesis further.

RESULTS

When applied in combination with TCLN in MC-38 tumor-bearing mice, EH/TCLN significantly suppressed tumor growth with more than half of the mice showing tumor regression. In addition, EH/TCLN treatment resulted in noticeable changes in the tumor microenvironment. As compared with the control group, EH/TCLN treatment led to significantly reduced tumor angiogenesis and expression of tumor microenvironment-related cytokines (TMCs), increased proportion of CD8⁺ T cells in the spleen, lymph node and tumor, elevated activity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and tumor cell apoptosis.

CONCLUSION

The present study demonstrated that the EH/TCLN treatment effectively created a favorable immune microenvironment for the induction of antitumor immunity and improved antitumor immune responses.

A magnetic resonance nanoprobe with STING activation character collaborates with platinum-based drug for enhanced tumor immunochemotherapy

BACKGROUND

Immunochemotherapy is a potent anti-tumor strategy, however, how to select therapeutic drugs to enhance the combined therapeutic effect still needs to be explored. METHODS AND RESULTS: Herein, a magnetic resonance nanoprobe (MnP@Lip) with STING (Stimulator of INterferon Genes) activation character was synthesized and co-administered with platinum-based chemotherapeutics for enhanced immunochemotherapy. MnP@Lip nanoparticles was prepared by simple fabrication process with good reproducibility, pH-sensitive drug release behavior and biocompatibility. In vitro experiments elucidated that Mn²⁺ can promote the polarization of M0 and/or M2 macrophages to M1 phenotype, and promote the maturation of BMDC cells. Upon Mn²⁺ treatment, the STING pathway was activated in tumor cells, mouse lung epithelial cells, and immune cells. More importantly, anti-tumor experiments in vivo proved that MnP@Lip combined with platinum-based chemotherapeutics increased T cells infiltration in the tumor microenvironment, and inhibited tumor growth in the orthotopic therapeutic and postoperative tumor models.

CONCLUSIONS

This kind of therapeutic strategy that combined MnP@Lip nanoparticles with platinum-based chemotherapeutics may provide a novel insight for immunochemotherapy.

Nanoparticle-mediated tumor vaccines for personalized therapy: preparing tumor antigens in vivo or ex vivo?

Tumor vaccines, focusing on tailoring individual tumor antigens, have gained much attention in personalized tumor therapy. Recently, breakthroughs have been made in the development of tumor vaccines thanks to the progress in nanotechnology. We will summarize nanoparticle-mediated tumor vaccines for personalized therapy in this review. ROS/heat generating nanoparticles and molecules could induce immunogenic cell death and tumor antigen release in vivo. This strategy often includes chemotherapy, radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, magneto-thermal therapy, etc. On the other hand, ex vivo technologies have been applied for processing of tumor cells/tissues to form effective tumor antigens, in which nanotechnology has shown very good prospects in delivering tumor antigens. In in vivo and ex vivo strategies, nanotechnology also could improve the immune effect through enhancing the uptake by targeting cells, reducing therapeutic drugs/agents, further encapsulating immuno-modulatory molecules or combining with other therapy treatments. Thus, therapeutic vaccines based on nanoparticles have the potential to enhance the immune response and reduce the side effects.

Biohybrid Nanosystems for Cancer Treatment: Merging the Best of Two Worlds

During the last 20+ years, research into the biomedical application of nanotechnology has helped in reshaping cancer treatment. The clinical use of several passively targeted nanosystems resulted in improved quality of care for patients. However, the therapeutic efficacy of these systems is not superior to the original drugs. Moreover, despite extensive investigations into actively targeted nanocarriers, numerous barriers still remain before their successful clinical translation, including sufficient bloodstream circulation time and efficient tumor targeting. The combination of synthetic nanomaterials with biological elements (e.g., cells, cell membranes, and macromolecules) is presently the cutting-edge research in cancer nanotechnology. The features provided by the biological moieties render the particles with prolonged bloodstream circulation time and homotopic targeting to the tumor site. Moreover, cancer cell membranes serve as sources of neoantigens, useful in the formulation of nanovaccines. In this chapter, we will discuss the advantages of biohybrid nanosystems in cancer chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and combined therapy, as well as highlight their preparation methods and clinical translatability.

A Hybrid Glioma Tumor Cell Lysate Immunotherapy Vaccine Demonstrates Good Clinical Efficacy in the Rat Model

Background

Conventional immunotherapy for glioma is not only expensive but also demonstrates less-than-desired clinical efficacy. In this study, we evaluated the immunotherapeutic efficacy of a tumor cell lysate-based hybrid glioma vaccine developed using a molecular-based approach.

Methods

First, the ability of the autologous (9L-cell lysate) and allogeneic (C6-cell lysate) vaccines against glioma, individually and in combination, to activate Fischer344 rat dendritic cells (DCs) was determined. Next, the activated DCs were co-cultured with T lymphocytes and screened for the optimal DC-to-T-cell ratio. The in vitro efficacy of the DC/T-cell vaccine formulations subjected to different immunogen treatments and co-cultured with glioma cells was evaluated based on glioma cell viability and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-2 and interferon (IFN)-γ secretion. Subsequently, the efficacy of the 9L + C6 hybrid vaccine was evaluated in 32 glioma rat models, randomly allocated to the following five treatment groups: blank control, tumor, vaccine treatment, thymosin treatment, and vaccine + thymosin treatment (combined treatment). Changes in survival duration, intracranial tumor volume, peripheral blood immune-cell (CD4+ T, CD8+ T, and natural killer [NK] cell) count, and serum cytokine (interleukin [IL]-2, IL-10) levels were assessed in these groups.

Results

The hybrid vaccine demonstrated the highest glioma cell apoptosis and the lowest cell viability and promoted MCP-2 and IFN-γ secretion in vitro. The vaccine treatment and combined treatment groups demonstrated longer survival duration, lower intracranial tumor volume, and higher immune cell glioma tissue infiltration and IL-2 secretion than the untreated tumor group, indicating the vaccine's good in vivo efficacy. Thymosin treatment had minimal effect in enhancing anti-glioma immunity.

Conclusion

We demonstrated the feasibility of combining autologous and allogeneic tumor cell lysates to stimulate specific host cell immune response against glioma cells. The good clinical efficacy of our developed glioma hybrid vaccine in rat models suggests its potential clinical application.

Polydopamine nanoparticles carrying tumor cell lysate as a potential vaccine for colorectal cancer immunotherapy

Polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA NPs) were prepared via dopamine self-polymerization; then, tumor cell lysate (TCL) was covalently attached onto the PDA NPs. The TCL loading capacity was 480 μg per mg of PDA NPs, and the resulting TCL@PDA NPs (241.9 nm) had perfect storage stability and negligible cytotoxicity against APCs. Tumor-bearing mice vaccinated with TCL@PDA NPs experienced significant delay in tumor progression due to the sufficient amount of CTLs and M1-type TAM as well as the deficient number of immunosuppression-related cells in the tumor tissues. Furthermore, empty PDA NPs had the ability to modulate DC maturation and delayed the development of tumors by facilitating the production of activated T cells and decreasing the subpopulation of MDSCs within the tumor microenvironment. Overall, these PDA NPs are expected to be a promising candidate for application as antigen delivery carriers because of their facile antigen loading method as well as their simple and rapid preparation process.

Nanoscale Coordination Polymer Based Nanovaccine for Tumor Immunotherapy

Tumor vaccines to induce robust immunity for cancer treatment have attracted tremendous interests in cancer immunotherapy. In this work, a type of cancer vaccine is prepared by using nanoscale coordination polymer (NCP) formed between Mn²⁺ ions and a nucleotide oligomerization binding domain 1 (Nod1) agonist, meso-2,6-diaminopimelic acid (DAP), as the organic ligand, to encapsulate a model protein antigen, ovalbumin (OVA). The obtained OVA@Mn-DAP nanoparticles could act as an effective tumor vaccine to promote the maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) as well as their antigen cross-presentation via increasing the cellular uptake of antigen and stimulating Nod1 pathway with DAP. Such OVA@Mn-DAP vaccine could migrate into lymph nodes after local injection, as revealed by in vivo magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence imaging. Importantly, vaccination with OVA@Mn-DAP could not only offer prophylactic to protect mice from challenged B16-OVA tumors but also result in significant therapeutic effect to inhibit growth of already-established tumors if in combination with anti-programmed cell death protein 1 antibody (α-PD-1) immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Therefore, this work presents an innovative platform to construct effective nanovaccine for tumor immunotherapy.