Multistage Cooperative Nanodrug Combined with PD-L1 for Enhancing Antitumor Chemoimmunotherapy

Abstract

Combinatorial CpG oligonucleotide (CPG) and chemotherapy drug represent a promising approach to reactivate immune system. However, these two agents possess different physicochemical properties, hindering the application of direct self-assembly of these two cargos into a single nanostructure. Here, a multistage cooperative nanodrug is developed by the direct self-assembly of cis-platinum (CDDP, Pt), l-arginine (l-Arg, R), and CPG (defined as PtR/CPG) for antitumor chemoimmunotherapy. First, the CDDP can induce cell apoptosis. Meanwhile, CDDP also promotes the production of H₂ O₂ , catalyzing the conversion of l-Arg into nitric oxide (NO). The generated NO decreases the multidrug resistance of cells toward CDDP. Thus, the synergistic effects of CDDP and NO can trigger immunogenic cell death to produce tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). The TAAs and CPG will induce the maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) and enhance antigen presentation ability of DCs. In this way, the PtR/CPG can reverse the immunosuppressive microenvironment, sensitizing tumors to immune checkpoint inhibitors mediated by the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody. Furthermore, the PtR/CPG combined with the PD-L1 antibody decreases the exhaustion and dysfunction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes to elicit durable systemic immune response. As a result, the prepared PtR/CPG nanodrug in combination with PD-L1 may be highly significant for cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords: DNA self-assembly; chemoimmunotherapy; multistage cooperative; nitric oxide; programmed death-ligand 1.