Catalytically Active Metal-Organic Frameworks Elicit Robust Immune Response to Combination Chemodynamic and Checkpoint Blockade Immunotherapy

Emerging glucose oxidase-delivering nanomedicines for enhanced tumor therapy

Abnormalities in glucose metabolism have been shown to characterize malignant tumors. Glucose depletion by glucose oxidase (GOD) has shown great potential in tumor therapy by causing tumor starvation. Since 2017, nanomedicines have been designed and utilized to deliver GOD for more precise and effective glucose modulation, which can overcome intrinsic limitations of different cancer therapeutic modalities by remodeling the tumor microenvironment to enhance antitumor therapy. To date, the topic of GOD-delivering nanomedicines for enhancing tumor therapy has not been comprehensively summarized. Herein, this review aims to provide an overview and discuss in detail recent advances in GOD delivery and directly involved starvation therapy strategies, GOD-sensitized various tumor therapy strategies, and GOD-mediated multimodal antitumor strategies. Finally, the challenges and outlooks for the future progress of the emerging tumor therapeutic nanomedicines are discussed. This review provides intuitive and specific insights to a broad audience in the fields of nanomedicines, biomaterials, and cancer therapy.

Ultrasound-responsive release of CD39 inhibitor overcomes adenosine-mediated immunosuppression in triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an exceptionally aggressive subtype of breast cancer, is characterized by a poor prognosis and limited treatment options. Although immunotherapy has shown promise for the treatment of TNBC, the immunosuppressive accumulation of adenosine (ADO) in the tumor microenvironment (TME) contributes to immune evasion and tumor progression. To address this challenge, we introduce a novel ultrasound-responsive liposomal system (BFPL) designed to inhibit ADO production and enhance the effectiveness of sonoimmunotherapy. BFPL consists of lipid membranes loaded with an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-targeting sonosensitizer (PMPS) and a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive CD39 inhibitor (FPL-67156) polyplex, synthesized via the thin-film hydration method. Upon ultrasound irradiation, BFPL generates substantial ROS, inducing robust immunogenic cell death (ICD) through ER stress. Concurrently, ROS-mediated deboronation of the polyplex releases FPL-67156, which inhibits ATP degradation into ADO, thereby promoting dendritic cell maturation and activating effector T cells. Moreover, BFPL effectively triggers a potent antitumor immune response and enhances the efficacy of anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy. Thus, by modulating metabolic pathways to counteract ADO-associated barriers in ICD therapy, this innovative approach holds potential for improving immunotherapy outcomes in TNBC.

Multifunctional metal-organic frameworks in breast cancer therapy: Advanced nanovehicles for effective treatment

Breast cancer is the second-most common cause of cancer-related death among women worldwide, with a gradual annual increase of 0.5 % in its occurrence rate in recent years. This complex ailment exhibits considerable diversity, with a mortality rate of 2.5 %. One promising area of research for its treatment is the development of MOFs, which are intricate three-dimensional (3D) structures constructed from metal ions or clusters joined with organic ligands through coordinate bonds. MOFs have emerged as versatile platform overcoming the limitations of conventional chemotherapeutics including poor drug solubility, non-specific targeting, and multidrug resistance. These applications are attributed to their adjustable porosity, chemical makeup, dimensions, straightforward surface customization capabilities, biocompatibility, nontoxicity etc. These properties position MOFs as excellent candidates for diverse regimes of cancer therapeutics including innovative approaches such as phototherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy, sonodynamic therapy, and various combination therapies. The article emphasizes the functionalization and applications of MOFs, with a primary focus on their therapeutic capabilities, synergistic approaches, and theranostic strategies that integrate diagnostic and therapeutic functions. Strategies to improve MOF biocompatibility and stability, such as surface modifications and biocompatible coatings are also discussed. Insights on various challenges and future prospects are provided to address current limitations and inspire further research, paving the way for clinical translation of MOF-based breast cancer therapies.

Optimizing cancer therapy through metal organic frameworks-based nanozymes

Cancer remains a leading global health challenge, with conventional treatments facing limitations due to drug resistance and adverse effects arising from tumor heterogeneity. Nanozymes, nanomaterials mimicking natural enzymes, have emerged as promising therapeutic agents owing to their catalytic efficiency, stability, and biocompatibility. Among nanozymes, MOFs-based nanozymes are particularly attractive due to the inherent tunability of MOFs, which allows for precise control over their structure, porosity, and catalytic activity. This review comprehensively explores the recent advancements in optimizing cancer therapy through MOFs-based nanozymes. We delve into the classification of these nanozymes based on their enzyme-mimicking activities, including peroxidase, oxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase, and discuss their underlying catalytic mechanisms. Additionally, emerging single-atom nanozymes are discussed as a distinct category. Furthermore, we highlight the diverse therapeutic strategies employing MOFs-based nanozymes, such as starvation therapy, oxygen supply, catalytic therapy, glutathione depletion, and activation of therapeutic agents within tumor microenvironment. By exploiting the unique properties of MOFs, these nanozymes demonstrate enhanced therapeutic efficacy in various cancer treatment modalities, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and sonodynamic therapy. This review underscores the significant potential of MOFs-based nanozymes as a versatile platform for developing next-generation cancer therapeutics, offering improved targeting, reduced systemic toxicity, and enhanced treatment outcomes.

Recent advances in chemodynamic nanotherapeutics to overcome multidrug resistance in cancers

Multidrug resistance (MDR) has become a major challenge in cancer therapy, it results in the failure of chemotherapy and anticancer drug development. Chemodynamic therapy (CDT), an emerging cancer treatment strategy, has been reported as a novel approach for cancer treatment characterized by low toxicity and minimal side effects. By generating robust cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals (·OH) via Fenton/Fenton-like reaction, CDT may cause cellular damage and oxidative stress-induced cell death. In recent years, many therapies based on CDT and/or combined with other treatment modalities are reported and exhibit exciting treatment efficacy in cancer treatment, such as photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, sonodynamic therapy, chemotherapy, starvation therapy and gas therapy etc. These combination therapies exhibit synergistic effects, significantly improving anticancer outcomes compared to CDT alone. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview of CDT-based strategies in cancer treatment, highlighting developments of CDT and CDT-based combination strategies in tumor therapy, especially in overcoming MDR challenges. Finally, the opportunities and challenges of CDT and CDT-combination therapy in the clinical application are also addressed.

Iron-MOFs for Biomedical Applications

Over the past two decades, iron-based metal-organic frameworks (Fe-MOFs) have attracted significant research interest in biomedicine due to their low toxicity, tunable degradability, substantial drug loading capacity, versatile structures, and multimodal functionalities. Despite their great potential, the transition of Fe-MOFs-based composites from laboratory research to clinical products remains challenging. This review evaluates the key properties that distinguish Fe-MOFs from other MOFs and highlights recent advances in synthesis routes, surface engineering, and shaping technologies. In particular, it focuses on their applications in biosensing, antimicrobial, and anticancer therapies. In addition, the review emphasizes the need to develop scalable, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective production methods for additional Fe-MOFs to meet the specific requirements of various biomedical applications. Despite the ability of Fe-MOFs-based composites to combine therapies, significant hurdles still remain, including the need for a deeper understanding of their therapeutic mechanisms and potential risks of resistance and overdose. Systematically addressing these challenges could significantly enhance the prospects of Fe-MOFs in biomedicine and potentially facilitate their integration into mainstream clinical practice.

Immunoadjuvant-functionalized metal-organic frameworks: synthesis and applications in tumor immune modulation

Cancer immunotherapy, which leverages the body's immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells, has made significant progress, particularly in the treatment of metastatic tumors. However, challenges such as drug stability and off-target effects still limit its clinical success. To address these issues, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as promising nanocarriers in cancer immunotherapy. MOFs have unique porous structure, excellent drug loading capacity, and tunable surface modification properties. MOFs not only enhance drug delivery efficiency but also allow for precise control of drug release. They reduce off-target effects and significantly improve targeting and therapy efficacy. As research deepens, MOFs' effectiveness as drug carriers has been refined. When combined with immunoadjuvants or anticancer drugs, MOFs further stimulate the immune response. This improves the specificity of immune attacks on tumors. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the applications of MOFs in cancer immunotherapy. It focuses on synthesis, drug loading strategies, and surface modifications. It also analyzes their role in enhancing immunotherapy effectiveness. By integrating current research, we aim to provide insights for the future development of immunoadjuvant-functionalized MOFs, accelerating their clinical application for safer and more effective cancer treatments.

Manganese-doped liquid metal nanoplatforms for cellular uptake and glutathione depletion-enhanced photothermal and chemodynamic combination tumor therapy

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) involves the catalysis of in situ overexpressed hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into highly toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) to treat tumors. However, the efficacy of CDT is greatly hampered by limited cellular internalization efficiency, ROS scavenging by glutathione (GSH), and slow reaction rate. To overcome the current limitations of CDT, a manganese-doped and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified liquid metal (LM)-silica nanoplatform (labeled as Mn-LMOP) with varying stiffness is constructed to achieve synergistic photothermal therapy (PTT) and CDT, which can further induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) in tumors to enhance the anti-tumour effects. Significantly, benefiting from the increased stiffness, the Mn-LMOP nanoparticles (NPs) can enhance cellular uptake and lysosomal escape, and gradually accumulate in tumor sites. Moreover, manganese-doped NPs exhibite good photothermal effects and can rapidly reacte with intratumoral GSH to produce Mn2+, inhibiting GSH-mediated ROS clearance and promoting the efficiency of CDT. This combined treatment strategy can activate the immune response of the tumors, which holds the promise of photothermal/chemodynamic/immune multimodal therapeutic effects. This LM-based nanosystem will provide a paradigm for enhanced CDT/PTT combination anti-tumour efficacy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) is a promising drug-free treatment approach characterized by its low invasiveness and minimal side effect. However, CDT encounters challenges such as high levels of glutathione (GSH), low Fenton-like reaction rate, and inefficient cellular uptake in tumor tissues. Here, a manganese-doped liquid metal (LM) nanomaterial was designed to achieve synergistic photothermal therapy (PTT) and CDT. This innovative strategy enhanced cellular uptake by adjusting the mechanical property of nanoparticles (NPs) and facilitated the consumption of GSH, while simultaneously accelerating the Fenton-like reaction rate with the assistance of PTT-mediated hyperthermia. This combined CDT/PTT strategy also activated the immune response within the tumor, demonstrating significant therapeutic potential.

Nanoplatform-based synergistic cancer Immuno-Chemodynamic therapy

Immunotherapy has made excellent breakthroughs in the field of cancer treatments, but faces challenges with low immunogenicity of tumor cells and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (ITME). The emerging chemodynamic therapy (CDT) based on the Fenton/Fenton-like reaction can induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) to enhance tumor immunogenicity, facilitating the transition from immune-cold to immune-hot tumors. Synergistic CDT and immunotherapy based on advanced nanotechnology have shown immense promise for improving therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects in cancer treatment. This review summarizes and discusses recent advances in the field, with the goal of designing a high-quality nanoplatform to enhance synergistic CDT in combination with immunotherapy and lay the foundation for its future clinical translation.

Nanomedicine for combination of chemodynamic therapy and immunotherapy of cancers

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT), as a new type of therapy, has received more and more attention in the field of tumor therapy in recent years. By virtue of the characteristics of weak acidity and excess H2O2 in the tumor microenvironment, CDT uses the Fenton or Fenton-like reactions to catalyze the transformation of H2O2 into strongly oxidizing ˙OH, resulting in increased intracellular oxidative stress for lipid oxidation, protein inactivation, or DNA damage, and finally inducing apoptosis of cancer cells. In particular, CDT has the advantage of tumor specificity. However, the therapeutic efficacy of CDT frequently depends on the catalytic efficiency of the Fenton reaction, which needs the presence of sufficient H2O2 and catalytic metal ions. Relatively low concentrations of H2O2 and the lack of catalytic metal ions usually limit the final therapeutic effect. The combination of CDT with immunotherapy will be an effective means to improve the therapeutic effect. In this review paper, the recent progress related to nanomedicine for the combination of CDT and immunotherapy is summarized. Immunogenic death of tumor cells, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and stimulator of interferon gene (STING) activation as the main immunotherapy strategies to combine with CDT are discussed. Finally, the challenges and prospects for the clinical translation and future development direction are discussed.

Emerging Chemodynamic Nanotherapeutics for Cancer Treatment

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) has emerged as a transformative paradigm in the realm of reactive oxygen species -mediated cancer therapies, exhibiting its potential as a sophisticated strategy for precise and effective tumor treatment. CDT primarily relies on metal ions and hydrogen peroxide to initiate Fenton or Fenton-like reactions, generating cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals. Its notable advantages in cancer treatment are demonstrated, including tumor specificity, autonomy from external triggers, and a favorable side-effect profile. Recent advancements in nanomedicine are devoted to enhancing CDT, promising a comprehensive optimization of CDT efficacy. This review systematically elucidates cutting-edge achievements in chemodynamic nanotherapeutics, exploring strategies for enhanced Fenton or Fenton-like reactions, improved tumor microenvironment modulation, and precise regulation in energy metabolism. Moreover, a detailed analysis of diverse CDT-mediated combination therapies is provided. Finally, the review concludes with a comprehensive discussion of the prospects and intrinsic challenges to the application of chemodynamic nanotherapeutics in the domain of cancer treatment.

Prospects, advances and biological applications of MOF-based platform for the treatment of lung cancer

Nowadays in our society, lung cancer is exhibiting a high mortality rate and threat to human health. Conventional diagnostic techniques used in the field of lung cancer often necessitate the use of extensive instrumentation, exhibit a tendency for false positives, and are not suitable for widespread early screening purposes. Conventional approaches to treat lung cancer primarily involve surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. However, these broad-spectrum treatments suffer from drawbacks such as imprecise targeting and significant side effects, which restrict their widespread use. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted significant attention in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer owing to their tunable electronic properties and structures and potential applications. These porous nanomaterials are formed through the intricate assembly of metal centers and organic ligands, resulting in highly versatile frameworks. Compared to traditional diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, MOFs can improve the sensitivity of lung cancer biomarker detection in the diagnosis of lung cancer. In terms of treatment, they can significantly reduce side effects and improve therapeutic efficacy. Hence, this perspective provides an overview concerning the advancements made in the field of MOFs as potent biosensors for lung cancer biomarkers. It also delves into the latest research dealing with the use of MOFs as carriers for drug delivery. Additionally, it explores the applications of MOFs in various therapeutic approaches, including chemodynamic therapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, and immunotherapy. Furthermore, this review comprehensively analyses potential applications of MOFs as biosensors in the field of lung cancer diagnosis and combines different therapeutic approaches aiming for enhanced therapeutic efficacy. It also presents a concise overview of the existing obstacles, aiming to pave the way for future advancements in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Rational design of ROS generation nanosystems to regulate innate immunity of macrophages, dendrtical and natural killing cells for immunotherapy

Innate immunity serves as the first line of host defense in the body against pathogenic infections or malignant diseases. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), as vital signaling mediators, can efficiently elicit innate immune responses to oxidative-related stress or damage. In the era of nanomedicine, various immunostimulatory nanosystems have been extensively designed and synthesized to elicit immune responses for the immunotherapy of cancer or infectious diseases. In this review, we emphasize that ROS derived from nanosystems regulates innate immune cells to potentiate immunotherapeutic efficacy, such as primarily dendritic cells, macrophages, or natural killer cells. Meanwhile, we also summarize the pathway of ROS generation triggered by exogenous nanosystems in innate immune cells of DCs, macrophages, and NK cells.

Biomedical application of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in cancer therapy: Stimuli-responsive and biomimetic nanocomposites in targeted delivery, phototherapy and diagnosis

The nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary field that has become a hot topic in cancer therapy. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous materials and hybrid composites consisted of organic linkers and metal cations. Despite the wide application of MOFs in other fields, the potential of MOFs for purpose of cancer therapy has been revealed by the recent studies. High surface area and porosity, significant drug loading and encapsulation efficiency are among the benefits of using MOFs in drug delivery. MOFs can deliver genes/drugs with selective targeting of tumor cells that can be achieved through functionalization with ligands. The photosensitizers and photo-responsive nanostructures including carbon dots and gold nanoparticles can be loaded in/on MOFs to cause phototherapy-mediated tumor ablation. The immunogenic cell death induction and increased infiltration of cytotoxic CD8+ and CD4+ T cells can be accelerated by MOF platforms in providing immunotherapy of tumor cells. The stimuli-responsive MOF platforms responsive to pH, redox, enzyme and ion can accelerate release of therapeutics in tumor site. Moreover, MOF nanocomposites can be modified ligands and green polymers to improve their selectivity and biocompatibility for cancer therapy. The application of MOFs for the detection of cancer-related biomarkers can participate in the early diagnosis of patients.

NQO-1 activatable NIR photosensitizer for visualization and selective killing of breast cancer cells

The diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer is of immense importance in improving patient outcomes. The biological marker NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 was utilized to design BrCyS-Q, a near-infrared activatable photosensitizer for breast cancer. BrCyS-Q was successfully employed to diagnose breast cancer cells using fluorescence and photodynamic inhibition. The findings of this research may offer novel insights for the diagnosis and treatment of clinical breast cancer via photodynamic therapy.

Amplifying "eat me signal" by immunogenic cell death for potentiating cancer immunotherapy

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a unique mode of cell death, which can release immunogenic damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and tumor-associated antigens to trigger long-term protective antitumor immune responses. Thus, amplifying "eat me signal" during tumor ICD cascade is critical for cancer immunotherapy. Some therapies (radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT), etc.) and inducers (chemotherapeutic agents, etc.) have enabled to initiate and/or facilitate ICD and activate antitumor immune responses. Recently, nanostructure-based drug delivery systems have been synthesized for inducing ICD through combining treatment of chemotherapeutic agents, photosensitizers for PDT, photothermal transformation agents for PTT, radiosensitizers for radiotherapy, etc., which can release loaded agents at an appropriate dosage in the designated place at the appropriate time, contributing to higher efficiency and lower toxicity. Also, immunotherapeutic agents in combination with nanostructure-based drug delivery systems can produce synergetic antitumor effects, thus potentiating immunotherapy. Overall, our review outlines the emerging ICD inducers, and nanostructure drug delivery systems loading diverse agents to evoke ICD through chemoradiotherapy, PDT, and PTT or combining immunotherapeutic agents. Moreover, we discuss the prospects and challenges of harnessing ICD induction-based immunotherapy, and highlight the significance of multidisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration to promote the optimal translation of this treatment strategy.

Current status of Fe-based MOFs in biomedical applications

Recently nanoparticle-based platforms have gained interest as drug delivery systems and diagnostic agents, especially in cancer therapy. With their ability to provide preferential accumulation at target sites, nanocarrier-constructed antitumor drugs can improve therapeutic efficiency and bioavailability. In contrast, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have received increasing academic interest as an outstanding class of coordination polymers that combine porous structures with high drug loading via temperature modulation and ligand interactions, overcoming the drawbacks of conventional drug carriers. FeIII-based MOFs are one of many with high biocompatibility and good drug loading capacity, as well as unique Fenton reactivity and superparamagnetism, making them highly promising in chemodynamic and photothermal therapy, and magnetic resonance imaging. Given this, this article summarizes the applications of FeIII-based MOFs in three significant fields: chemodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy and MRI, suggesting a logical route to new strategies. This article concludes by summarising the primary challenges and development prospects in these promising research areas.