Steerable Microneedles Enabling Deep Delivery of Photosensitizers and CRISPR/Cas9 Systems for Effective Combination Cancer Therapy

Transdermal gene delivery

Gene delivery has revolutionized conventional medical approaches to vaccination, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. However, current gene delivery methods are limited to either intravenous administration or direct local injections, failing to achieve well biosafety, tissue targeting, drug retention, and transfection efficiency for desired therapeutic outcomes. Transdermal drug delivery based on various delivery strategies can offer improved therapeutic potential and superior patient experiences. Recently, there has been increased foundational and clinical research focusing on the role of the transdermal route in gene delivery and exploring its impact on the efficiency of gene delivery. This review introduces the recent advances in transdermal gene delivery approaches facilitated by drug formulations and medical devices, as well as discusses their prospects.

Revolutionizing Lung Cancer Treatment: Innovative CRISPR-Cas9 Delivery Strategies

Lung carcinoma, including both non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC), remains a significant global health challenge due to its high morbidity and mortality rates. The objsective of this review is to meticulously examine the current advancements and strategies in the delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology for the treatment of lung carcinoma. This technology heralds a new era in molecular biology, offering unprecedented precision in genomic modifications. However, its therapeutic potential is contingent upon the development of effective delivery mechanisms that ensure the efficient and specific transport of gene-editing tools to tumor cells. We explore a variety of delivery approaches, such as viral vectors, lipid-based nanoparticles, and physical methods, highlighting their respective advantages, limitations, and recent breakthroughs. This review also delves into the translational and clinical significance of these strategies, discussing preclinical and clinical studies that investigate the feasibility, efficacy, and safety of CRISPR-Cas9 delivery for lung carcinoma. By scrutinizing the landscape of ongoing clinical trials and offering translational perspectives, we aim to elucidate the current state and future directions of this rapidly evolving field. The review is structured to first introduce the problem and significance of lung carcinoma, followed by an overview of CRISPR-Cas9 technology, a detailed examination of delivery strategies, and an analysis of clinical applications and regulatory considerations. Our discussion concludes with future perspectives and challenges, such as optimizing delivery strategies, enhancing specificity, mitigating immunogenicity concerns, and addressing regulatory issues. This comprehensive overview seeks to provide insights into the potential of CRISPR-Cas9 as a revolutionary approach for targeted therapies and personalized medicine in lung carcinoma, emphasizing the importance of delivery strategy development in realizing the full potential of this groundbreaking technology.

Enhancing photodynamic immunotherapy by reprograming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment with hypoxia relief

Tumor hypoxia impairs the generation of reactive oxygen species and the induction of immunogenic cell death (ICD) for photodynamic therapy (PDT), thus impeding its efficacy and the subsequent immunotherapy. In addition, hypoxia plays a critical role in forming immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments (TME) by regulating the infiltration of immunosuppressive tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). To simultaneously tackle these issues, a MnO2-containing albumin nanoplatform co-delivering IR780, NLG919, and a paclitaxel (PTX) dimer is designed to boost photodynamic immunotherapy. The MnO2-catalyzed oxygen supply bolsters the efficacy of PDT and PTX-mediated chemotherapy, collectively amplifying the induction of ICD and the expansion of tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). More importantly, hypoxia releif reshapes the immunosuppressive TME via down-regulating the intratumoral infiltration of M2-type TAMs and the PD-L1 expression of tumor cells to enhance the infiltration and efficacy of CTLs in combination with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) by NLG919, consequently eradicating primary tumors and almost completely preventing tumor relapse and metastasis. This study sets an example of enhanced immunotherapy for breast cancers through dual ICD induction and simultaneous immunosuppression modulation via both hypoxia relief and ICB, providing a strategy for the treatment of other hypoxic and immunosuppressive cancers.

Advances of Smart Stimulus-Responsive Microneedles in Cancer Treatment

Microneedles (MNs) have emerged as a highly promising technology for delivering drugs via the skin. They provide several benefits, including high drug bioavailability, non-invasiveness, painlessness, and high safety. Traditional strategies for intravenous delivery of anti-tumor drugs have risks of systemic toxicity and easy development of drug resistance, while MN technology facilitates precise delivery and on-demand release of drugs in local tissues. In addition, by further combining with stimulus-responsive materials, the construction of smart stimulus-responsive MNs can be achieved, which can respond to specific physical/chemical stimuli from the internal or external environment, thereby further improving the accuracy of tumor treatment and reducing toxicity to surrounding tissues/cells. This review systematically summarizes the classification, materials, and reaction mechanisms of stimulus-responsive MNs, outlines the benefits and challenges of various types of MNs, and details their application and latest progress in cancer treatment. Finally, the development prospects of smart MNs in tumor treatment are also discussed, bringing inspiration for future precision treatment of tumors.