Cancer cell membrane-wrapped nanoparticles for cancer immunotherapy: A review of current developments

A biomimetic therapeutic nanovaccine based on dendrimer-drug conjugates coated with metal-phenolic networks for combination therapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: an in vitro investigation

Developing a minimally invasive and potent therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma is still challenging. In this study, we report a photothermal nanovaccine based on phenylboronic acid (PBA)-modified poly(amidoamine) dendrimers of generation 5 (G5) attached with indocyanine green (ICG) as a photothermal agent, toyocamycin (Toy) as an endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) drug, and Mn2+-coordinated metal-phenolic networks. The developed nanocomplexes are camouflaged with homologous apoptotic cancer cell membranes, leveraging membrane proteins as an antigenic reservoir and incorporating the immune adjuvant cytosine-guanine (CpG) oligonucleotide to obtain the final nanovaccine formulation. The prepared nanovaccine with a size of 72.4 nm displays satisfactory colloidal stability and photothermal conversion efficiency (36.7%), and is capable of targeting cancer cells and inducing apoptosis under laser irradiation through combined ICG-mediated photothermal therapy, Toy-enabled chemotherapy and Mn2+-mediated chemodynamic therapy. Meanwhile, the combined therapeutic effects can elicit immune responses to mature dendritic cells through the immunogenic cell death of cancer cells and the inserted CpG adjuvant/apoptotic cancer cell membranes, and polarize tumor-associated macrophage cells to the antitumor M1 phenotype. The antitumor efficacy of the nanomedicine platform was proven by the test of the penetration and therapeutic inhibition of 3-dimensional tumor spheroids in vitro. The developed functional nanomedicine integrated with different therapeutic modes may be developed as a biomimetic therapeutic nanovaccine for nasopharyngeal carcinoma treatment.

Biomimetic Copper-Based Nanoplatform for Enhanced Tumor Targeting and Effective Melanoma Therapy

Designing advanced biomimetic nanoplatforms that combine photothermal therapy (PTT) and immune activation represents a modern approach to addressing the challenges of cancer therapy. This study presents a nanobiomimetic hollow copper-sulfide (HCuS) platform for precise homotypic tumor targeting and melanoma treatment. The HCuS@OVA@CM (COC) nanoplatform-encapsulated ovalbumin (OVA) antigen protein within HCuS nanoparticles and was coated with melanoma cell membranes (B16F10). Importantly, this design facilitates specific tumor accumulation and achieves 16.0% photothermal conversion efficiency under 1064 nm NIR-II irradiation, which is a key factor for therapeutic success. In vitro studies have demonstrated that this nanoplatform induces immunogenic cell death (ICD), enhances antigen presentation, and stimulates dendritic cell (DCs) maturation. In vivo experiments confirmed that COC-mediated NIR-II photothermal treatment significantly suppressed tumor growth without notable body weight loss. This biomimetic nanoplatform approach offers a targeted, enhanced, and effective immune response for tumor photothermal immunotherapy, making it a promising candidate for advanced melanoma treatment and anticancer therapy.

Personalized mRNA vaccine combined with PD-1 inhibitor therapy in a patient with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Therapeutic cancer vaccines are valuable tools for educating the immune system to fight tumors precisely. Cancer cells are characterized with genetic instability and abundant somatic mutations, leading to the production of tumor specific antigens (TSA) called neoantigens. The main goal of neoantigen-based cancer vaccines is to activate the immune system and elicit effective tumor-specific T-cell responses. There have been no reports of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cases achieving partial remission after personalized mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine treatment. As personalized neoantigen-based immunotherapies are emerging, here we report a 67-year-old male patient diagnosed with ESCC and multiple enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes, where mRNA vaccines were used for the first time. Tissue samples from the recurrence focus in the esophagus were subjected to whole transcriptome sequencing. The neoantigens were identified by bioinformatics analyses. The top 20 neoantigens were selected to compose the polyneoantigen vaccine, which were administered at 1 mg every 3 weeks for 4 cycles in combination with a PD-1 (programmed death-1) inhibitor. The patient was boosted with a single dose of the PD-1 inhibitor 8 weeks after the 4th cycle. In addition, immune responses were evaluated before and after the 4 cycles of vaccine therapy, and the lesions were evaluated by imaging examination. Our results revealed that neoantigen-based vaccines significantly activated the tumour-specific immune response. TCR (T cell receptor) V-J pairing analysis showed an increase in the abundance of oligoclonal TCRs, indicating improved homogeneity. No grade 3 or higher drug-related adverse events were observed, except for grade 4 thrombocytopenia caused by PD-1 inhibitor treatment. The patient achieved a partial response (PR), with a progression-free survival (PFS) time of 457 days, the OS (overall survival) time of 457 days, and DOR (duration of response) of 377 days. Our report suggests that combining the personalized mRNA vaccine therapy with PD-1 blockade therapy may be an effective treatment strategy for patient with advanced esophageal cancer. However, further clinical trials are necessary to confirm the efficacy and safety of personalized neoantigen-based immunotherapies in the treatment of advanced ESCC. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03468244 on March 16, 2018, and is now complete.

Strategies and Recent Advances on Improving Efficient Antitumor of Lenvatinib Based on Nanoparticle Delivery System

Lenvatinib (LVN) is a potentially effective multiple-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for treating hepatocellular carcinoma, metastatic renal cell carcinoma and thyroid cancer. Nonetheless, poor pharmacokinetic properties including poor water solubility and rapid metabolic, complex tumor microenvironment, and drug resistance have impeded its satisfactory therapeutic efficacy. This article comprehensively reviews the uses of nanotechnology in LVN to improve antitumor effects. With the characteristic of high modifiability and loading capacity of the nano-drug delivery system, an active targeting approach, controllable drug release, and biomimetic strategies have been devised to deliver LVN to target tumors in sequence, compensating for the lack of passive targeting. The existing applications and advances of LVN in improving therapeutic efficacy include improving longer-term efficiency, achieving higher efficiency, combination therapy, tracking and diagnosing application and reducing toxicity. Therefore, using multiple strategies combined with photothermal, photodynamic, and immunoregulatory therapies potentially overcomes multi-drug resistance, regulates unfavorable tumor microenvironment, and yields higher synergistic antitumor effects. In brief, the nano-LVN delivery system has brought light to the war against cancer while at the same time improving the antitumor effect. More intelligent and multifunctional nanoparticles should be investigated and further converted into clinical applications in the future.

Boosting Checkpoint Immunotherapy with Biomimetic Nanodrug Delivery Systems

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has achieved unprecedented progress in tumor immunotherapy by blocking specific immune checkpoint molecules. However, the high biodistribution of the drug prevents it from specifically targeting tumor tissues, leading to immune-related adverse events. Biomimetic nanodrug delivery systems (BNDSs) readily applicable to ICB therapy have been widely developed at the preclinical stage to avoid immune-related adverse events. By exploiting or mimicking complex biological structures, the constructed BNDS as a novel drug delivery system has good biocompatibility and certain tumor-targeting properties. Herein, the latest findings regarding the aforementioned therapies associated with ICB therapy are highlighted. Simultaneously, prospective bioinspired engineering strategies can be designed to overcome the four-level barriers to drug entry into lesion sites. In future clinical translation, BNDS-based ICB combination therapy represents a promising avenue for cancer treatment.

Bionic nanotheranostic for multimodal imaging-guided NIR-II-photothermal cancer therapy

In photothermal therapy (PTT), the photothermal conversion of the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window allows deeper penetration and higher laser irradiance and is considered a promising therapeutic strategy for deep tissues. Since cancer remains a leading cause of deaths worldwide, despite the numerous treatment options, we aimed to develop an improved bionic nanotheranostic for combined imaging and photothermal cancer therapy. We combined a gold nanobipyramid (Au NBP) as a photothermal agent and MnO2 as a magnetic resonance enhancer to produce core/shell structures (Au@MnO2; AM) and modified their surfaces with homologous cancer cell plasma membranes (PM) to enable tumour targeting. The performance of the resulting Au@MnO2@PM (AMP) nanotheranostic was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. AMP exhibits photothermal properties under NIR-II laser irradiation and has multimodal in vitro imaging functions. AMP enables the computed tomography (CT), photothermal imaging (PTI), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of tumours. In particular, AMP exhibited a remarkable PTT effect on cancer cells in vitro and inhibited tumour cell growth under 1064 nm laser irradiation in vivo, with no significant systemic toxicity. This study achieved tumour therapy guided by multimodal imaging, thereby demonstrating a novel strategy for the use of bionic gold nanoparticles for tumour PTT under NIR-II laser irradiation.

Biomimetic Cell-Derived Nanoparticles: Emerging Platforms for Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy can significantly prevent tumor growth and metastasis by activating the autoimmune system without destroying normal cells. Although cancer immunotherapy has made some achievements in clinical cancer treatment, it is still restricted by systemic immunotoxicity, immune cell dysfunction, cancer heterogeneity, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (ITME). Biomimetic cell-derived nanoparticles are attracting considerable interest due to their better biocompatibility and lower immunogenicity. Moreover, biomimetic cell-derived nanoparticles can achieve different preferred biological effects due to their inherent abundant source cell-relevant functions. This review summarizes the latest developments in biomimetic cell-derived nanoparticles for cancer immunotherapy, discusses the applications of each biomimetic system in cancer immunotherapy, and analyzes the challenges for clinical transformation.