Multi-functional nanomedicines for combinational cancer immunotherapy that transform cold tumors to hot tumors

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Currently, cancer immunotherapy is widely used as a groundbreaking method that can completely cure advanced cancers. However, this new immunotherapy has the challenge of low patient response, which is often due to many patients’ tumors having an immunosuppressive environment, known as cold tumors.

Areas covered

This review aims to introduce various nanomedicine-derived combinational cancer immunotherapy that can transform cold tumor into hot tumors. Initially, we discuss new technologies for combinational immunotherapy based on multifunctional nanomedicines that can deliver combinational immunogenic cell death (ICD) inducers, immune checkpoint blockades (ICBs) and immune modulators (IMs) to targeted tumor tissues at the same time. Ultimately, we highlight how multifunctional nanomedicines for combinational cancer immunotherapy can be used to transform cold tumor into hot tumors against advanced cancers.

Expert opinion

Nanomedicine-derived combinational cancer immunotherapy for delivering multiple ICD inducers, ICBs, and IMs at the same time is recognized as a new potential technology that can activate tumor immunity and simultaneously increase the therapeutic efficacy of immune cells that can transform effectively the cold tumors into hot tumors. Finally, nanomedicine-derived combinational cancer immunotherapy can solve the serious problems of low therapeutic efficacy that occurs when treating single drug or simple combinational drugs in cancer immunotherapy.

KEYWORDS:

• Nanomedicine
• immunotherapy
• immune checkpoint blockade
• immunogenic cell death
• immunomodulator
• combination therapy
• drug delivery

Article highlights

• The current limitations of immunotherapy are primarily due to the low response rates in immunosuppressive cold tumors, highlighting the importance of transforming these into hot tumors.

• The combination therapy of immunogenic cell death (ICD) inducers and immunomodulator (IM) can be a key strategy to overcome challenges of current immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy.

• Nano-scale drug delivery systems can be applied to tumor targeting methods with shielding off-target toxicity result from combination therapy.

• The single nanoparticle constructed with combined therapeutic agents can synchronize pharmacokinetic profiles of each agents resulting in effective therapeutic results.

• This review suggests an overview of synergistic combination therapy in a single nanoparticle as a novel strategies for cancer immunotherapy.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare [HN21C0349, Republic of Korea].