Dendrimers for cancer immunotherapy: Avidity-based drug delivery vehicles for effective anti-tumor immune response.
Piper A RawdingTae Hee LeeJianxin WangDa Won KimAdam J DrelichYoung Soo KimSeungpyo HongPublished in: Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology (2021)
Cancer immunotherapy, or the utilization of a patient's own immune system to treat cancer, has shifted the paradigm of cancer treatment. Despite meaningful responses being observed in multiple studies, currently available immunotherapy platforms have only proven effective to a small subset of patients. To address this, nanoparticles have been utilized as a novel carrier for immunotherapeutic drugs, achieving robust anti-tumor effects with increased adaptive and durable responses. Specifically, dendrimer nanoparticles have attracted a great deal of scientific interest due to their versatility in various therapeutic applications, resulting from their unique physicochemical properties and chemically well-defined architecture. This review offers a comprehensive overview of dendrimer-based immunotherapy technologies, including their formulations, biological functionalities, and therapeutic applications. Common formulations include: (1) modulators of cytokine secretion of immune cells (adjuvants); (2) facilitators of the recognition of tumorous antigens (vaccines); (3) stimulators of immune effectors to selectively attack cells expressing specific antigens (antibodies); and (4) inhibitors of immune-suppressive responses (immune checkpoint inhibitors). On-going works and prospects of dendrimer-based immunotherapies are also discussed. Overall, this review provides a critical overview on rapidly growing dendrimer-based immunotherapy technologies and serves as a guideline for researchers and clinicians who are interested in this field. This article is categorized under: Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies.
Keyphrases
- drug discovery
- immune response
- drug delivery
- end stage renal disease
- dendritic cells
- ejection fraction
- chronic kidney disease
- induced apoptosis
- cancer therapy
- newly diagnosed
- prostate cancer
- prognostic factors
- small molecule
- palliative care
- peritoneal dialysis
- papillary thyroid
- cell proliferation
- young adults
- oxidative stress
- patient reported outcomes
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- current status