Engineering immunogenic cell death with nanosized drug delivery systems improving cancer immunotherapy

Abstract

Many anti-cancer therapies can induce or enhance the immunogenic cell death (ICD), a process that releases damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) to prime antigen processing and presentation necessary for successful cancer immunotherapy. However, the clinical potential of these therapies, especially the chemotherapy, is limited by serious systemic side effects, because of their non-specific accumulation out of the tumors. Nanosized drug delivery systems (NDDSs) can improve the specificity of anti-cancer therapies, which enhance ICD in the tumor while alleviating toxicities. In this review, we summarize recent progress of ICD-inducing NDDSs with a focus on their enhanced safety and efficacy for cancer immunotherapy.