Application of Nanocomposites in Cancer Immunotherapy

Nano LIFE â—½  
2017 â—½  
Vol 07 (03n04) â—½  
pp. 1750008
Author(s):  
Wenhan Liu â—½  
Zejun Wang â—½  
Yao Luo â—½  
Nan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Immune System â—½  
Cancer Therapy â—½  
Cancer Treatment â—½  
Cancer Immunotherapy â—½  
Cancer Patients â—½  
Tumor Cells â—½  
Tumor Immunity â—½  
Critical Role â—½  
Clinical Advances â—½  
Review Current

Despite the clinical advances in oncology, cancer is still the major cause of death worldwide. Recent research demonstrates that the immune system plays a critical role in preventing tumor occurrence and development. The focus on cancer treatment has been shifted from directly targeting the tumor cells to motivating the immune system to achieve this goal. However, the activity of immune system is often suppressed in cancer patients. To boost the anti-tumor immunity against cancers, various nanocomposites have been developed to enhance the efficacy of immunostimulatory agents. Here, we review current advances in nanomaterial-mediated immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer, with an emphasis on applications of nanocomposites as immunoadjuvants in cancer therapy.

Transferrin-Conjugated Nanocarriers as Active-Targeted Drug Delivery Platforms for Cancer Therapy

2017 â—½  
Vol 23 (3) â—½  
pp. 454-466 â—½  
Author(s):  
Daniele R. Nogueira-Librelotto â—½  
Cristiane F. Codevilla â—½  
Ammad Farooqi â—½  
Clarice M. B. Rolim
Keyword(s):  
Drug Delivery â—½  
Cancer Therapy â—½  
Tumor Cells â—½  
Therapeutic Benefit â—½  
Active Targeting â—½  
Future Research â—½  
Passive Targeting â—½  
The Right â—½  
Review Current â—½  
Target Effects

A lot of effort has been devoted to achieving active targeting for cancer therapy in order to reach the right cells. Hence, increasingly it is being realized that active-targeted nanocarriers notably reduce off-target effects, mainly because of targeted localization in tumors and active cellular uptake. In this context, by taking advantage of the overexpression of transferrin receptors on the surface of tumor cells, transferrin-conjugated nanodevices have been designed, in hope that the biomarker grafting would help to maximize the therapeutic benefit and to minimize the side effects. Notably, active targeting nanoparticles have shown improved therapeutic performances in different tumor models as compared to their passive targeting counterparts. In this review, current development of nano-based devices conjugated with transferrin for active tumor-targeting drug delivery are highlighted and discussed. The main objective of this review is to provide a summary of the vast types of nanomaterials that have been used to deliver different chemotherapeutics into tumor cells, and to ultimately evaluate the progression on the strategies for cancer therapy in view of the future research.

scholarly journals The Next-Generation of Combination Cancer Immunotherapy: Epigenetic Immunomodulators Transmogrify Immune Training to Enhance Immunotherapy

Cancers â—½  
2021 â—½  
Vol 13 (14) â—½  
pp. 3596
Author(s):  
Reza Bayat Mokhtari â—½  
Manpreet Sambi â—½  
Bessi Qorri â—½  
Narges Baluch â—½  
Neda Ashayeri â—½  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System â—½  
Cancer Immunotherapy â—½  
Tumor Cells â—½  
Tumor Antigens â—½  
Response Rates â—½  
Viral Proteins â—½  
Tumor Rejection â—½  
Therapeutic Approaches â—½  
Patient Response â—½  
Specific Antigens

Cancer immunotherapy harnesses the immune system by targeting tumor cells that express antigens recognized by immune system cells, thus leading to tumor rejection. These tumor-associated antigens include tumor-specific shared antigens, differentiation antigens, protein products of mutated genes and rearrangements unique to tumor cells, overexpressed tissue-specific antigens, and exogenous viral proteins. However, the development of effective therapeutic approaches has proven difficult, mainly because these tumor antigens are shielded, and cells primarily express self-derived antigens. Despite innovative and notable advances in immunotherapy, challenges associated with variable patient response rates and efficacy on select tumors minimize the overall effectiveness of immunotherapy. Variations observed in response rates to immunotherapy are due to multiple factors, including adaptative resistance, competency, and a diversity of individual immune systems, including cancer stem cells in the tumor microenvironment, composition of the gut microbiota, and broad limitations of current immunotherapeutic approaches. New approaches are positioned to improve the immune response and increase the efficacy of immunotherapies, highlighting the challenges that the current global COVID-19 pandemic places on the present state of immunotherapy.

scholarly journals Modeling the Treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme and Cancer Stem Cells with Ordinary Differential Equations

2016 â—½  
Vol 2016 â—½  
pp. 1-11 â—½  
Author(s):  
Kristen Abernathy â—½  
Jeremy Burke
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells â—½  
Glioblastoma Multiforme â—½  
Cancer Therapy â—½  
Cancer Stem Cells â—½  
Differential Equations â—½  
Ordinary Differential Equations â—½  
Cancer Patients â—½  
Tumor Cells â—½  
Tumor Recurrence â—½  
Common Event

Despite improvements in cancer therapy and treatments, tumor recurrence is a common event in cancer patients. One explanation of recurrence is that cancer therapy focuses on treatment of tumor cells and does not eradicate cancer stem cells (CSCs). CSCs are postulated to behave similar to normal stem cells in that their role is to maintain homeostasis. That is, when the population of tumor cells is reduced or depleted by treatment, CSCs will repopulate the tumor, causing recurrence. In this paper, we study the application of the CSC Hypothesis to the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme by immunotherapy. We extend the work of Kogan et al. (2008) to incorporate the dynamics of CSCs, prove the existence of a recurrence state, and provide an analysis of possible cancerous states and their dependence on treatment levels.

scholarly journals The Mechanism of Stimulating and Mobilizing the Immune System Enhancing the Anti-Tumor Immunity

2021 â—½  
Vol 12 â—½  
Author(s):  
Zhengguo Wu â—½  
Shang Li â—½  
Xiao Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response â—½  
Immune System â—½  
Tumor Microenvironment â—½  
Cancer Immunotherapy â—½  
Tumor Immunity â—½  
Checkpoint Inhibitors â—½  
The Body â—½  
Research Progress â—½  
Effective Population â—½  
Cell Components

Cancer immunotherapy is a kind of therapy that can control and eliminate tumors by restarting and maintaining the tumor-immune cycle and restoring the body’s normal anti-tumor immune response. Although immunotherapy has great potential, it is currently only applicable to patients with certain types of tumors, such as melanoma, lung cancer, and cancer with high mutation load and microsatellite instability, and even in these types of tumors, immunotherapy is not effective for all patients. In order to enhance the effectiveness of tumor immunotherapy, this article reviews the research progress of tumor microenvironment immunotherapy, and studies the mechanism of stimulating and mobilizing immune system to enhance anti-tumor immunity. In this review, we focused on immunotherapy against tumor microenvironment (TME) and discussed the important research progress. TME is the environment for the survival and development of tumor cells, which is composed of cell components and non-cell components; immunotherapy for TME by stimulating or mobilizing the immune system of the body, enhancing the anti-tumor immunity. The checkpoint inhibitors can effectively block the inhibitory immunoregulation, indirectly strengthen the anti-tumor immune response and improve the effect of immunotherapy. We also found the checkpoint inhibitors have brought great changes to the treatment model of advanced tumors, but the clinical treatment results show great individual differences. Based on the close attention to the future development trend of immunotherapy, this study summarized the latest progress of immunotherapy and pointed out a new direction. To study the mechanism of stimulating and mobilizing the immune system to enhance anti-tumor immunity can provide new opportunities for cancer treatment, expand the clinical application scope and effective population of cancer immunotherapy, and improve the survival rate of cancer patients.

scholarly journals Imaging Biomarkers of Tumour Proliferation and Invasion for Personalised Lung Cancer Therapy

10.3390/jpm10040222 â—½  
2020 â—½  
Vol 10 (4) â—½  
pp. 222
Author(s):  
Loredana G. Marcu
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer â—½  
Cancer Therapy â—½  
Cancer Treatment â—½  
Critical Role â—½  
Imaging Biomarkers â—½  
Lung Cancer Treatment â—½  
Cancer Management â—½  
Specificity And Sensitivity â—½  
Lung Cancer Therapy â—½  
Tumour Proliferation

Personalised treatment in oncology has seen great developments over the last decade, due to both technological advances and more in-depth knowledge of radiobiological processes occurring in tumours. Lung cancer therapy is no exception, as new molecular targets have been identified to further increase treatment specificity and sensitivity. Yet, tumour resistance to treatment is still one of the main reasons for treatment failure. This is due to a number of factors, among which tumour proliferation, the presence of cancer stem cells and the metastatic potential of the primary tumour are key features that require better controlling to further improve cancer management in general, and lung cancer treatment in particular. Imaging biomarkers play a key role in the identification of biological particularities within tumours and therefore are an important component of treatment personalisation in radiotherapy. Imaging techniques such as PET, SPECT, MRI that employ tumour-specific biomarkers already play a critical role in patient stratification towards individualized treatment. The aim of the current paper is to describe the radiobiological challenges of lung cancer treatment in relation to the latest imaging biomarkers that can aid in the identification of hostile cellular features for further treatment adaptation and tailoring to the individual patient’s needs.

scholarly journals An update on clinical oncology for the non-oncologist

2016 â—½  
Vol 14 (2) â—½  
pp. 294-299
Author(s):  
Rafael Aliosha Kaliks
Keyword(s):  
Public Health â—½  
Immune System â—½  
Health System â—½  
Cancer Treatment â—½  
Tumor Progression â—½  
Tumor Cells â—½  
Public Health System â—½  
Developed Countries â—½  
Driver Mutations â—½  
New Treatments

ABSTRACT Recent advances in the understanding of tumor driver mutations, signaling pathways that lead to tumor progression, and the better understanding of the interaction between tumor cells and the immune system are revolutionizing cancer treatment. The pace at which new treatments are approved and the prices at which they are set have made it even more difficult to offer these treatments in countries like Brazil. In this review we present for the non-oncologist these new treatments and compare their availability in Brazilian public health system and private health system with that of developed countries.

scholarly journals Cold Physical Plasma in Cancer Therapy: Mechanisms, Signaling, and Immunity

2021 â—½  
Vol 2021 â—½  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Faramarzi â—½  
Parisa Zafari â—½  
Mina Alimohammadi â—½  
Mohammadreza Moonesi â—½  
Alireza Rafiei â—½  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Death â—½  
Immune System â—½  
Cancer Therapy â—½  
Plasma Treatment â—½  
Tumor Cells â—½  
Cancer Cell â—½  
Intracellular Signaling â—½  
Current Knowledge â—½  
Cancer Cell Death â—½  
Physical Plasma

Despite recent advances in therapy, cancer still is a devastating and life-threatening disease, motivating novel research lines in oncology. Cold physical plasma, a partially ionized gas, is a new modality in cancer research. Physical plasma produces various physicochemical factors, primarily reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS), causing cancer cell death when supplied at supraphysiological concentrations. This review outlines the biomedical consequences of plasma treatment in experimental cancer therapy, including cell death modalities. It also summarizes current knowledge on intracellular signaling pathways triggered by plasma treatment to induce cancer cell death. Besides the inactivation of tumor cells, an equally important aspect is the inflammatory context in which cell death occurs to suppress or promote the responses of immune cells. This is mainly governed by the release of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) to provoke immunogenic cancer cell death (ICD) that, in turn, activates cells of the innate immune system to promote adaptive antitumor immunity. The pivotal role of the immune system in cancer treatment, in general, is highlighted by many clinical trials and success stories on using checkpoint immunotherapy. Hence, the potential of plasma treatment to induce ICD in tumor cells to promote immunity targeting cancer lesions systemically is also discussed.

scholarly journals Simple and effective bacterial-based intratumoral cancer immunotherapy

2021 â—½  
Vol 9 (9) â—½  
pp. e002688
Author(s):  
Christina S E Carroll â—½  
Erin R Andrew â—½  
Laeeq Malik â—½  
Kathryn F Elliott â—½  
Moira Brennan â—½  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System â—½  
Tumor Growth â—½  
Cancer Immunotherapy â—½  
Cancer Patients â—½  
Immune Cell â—½  
Human Cancer â—½  
Intratumoral Injection â—½  
Ct Scans â—½  
Antitumor Effects â—½  
Wide Range

BackgroundWe describe intratumoral injection of a slow-release emulsion of killed mycobacteria (complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA)) in three preclinical species and in human cancer patients.MethodsEfficacy and safety were tested in mammary tumors in mice, in mastocytomas in mice and dogs, and in equine melanomas. In mice, survival, tumor growth, and tumor infiltration by six immune cell subsets (by flow cytometry) were investigated and analyzed using Cox proportional hazards, a random slopes model, and a full factorial model, respectively. Tumor growth and histology were investigated in dogs and horses, as well as survival and tumor immunohistochemistry in dogs. Tumor biopsies were taken from human cancer patients on day 5 (all patients) and day 28 (some patients) of treatment and analyzed by histology. CT scans are provided from one patient.ResultsSignificantly extended survival was observed in mouse P815 and 4T1 tumor models. Complete tumor regressions were observed in all three non-human species (6/186 (3%) of mouse mastocytomas; 3/14 (21%) of canine mastocytomas and 2/11 (18%) of equine melanomas). Evidence of systemic immune responses (regression of non-injected metastases) was also observed. Analysis of immune cells infiltrating mastocytoma tumors in mice showed that early neutrophil infiltration was predictive of treatment benefit. Analysis of the site of mastocytoma regression in dogs weeks or months after treatment demonstrated increased B and T cell infiltrates. Thus, activation of the innate immune system alone may be sufficient for regression of some injected tumors, followed by activation of the acquired immune system which can mediate regression of non-injected metastases. Finally, we report on the use of CFA in 12 human cancer patients. Treatment was well tolerated. CT scans showing tumor regression in a patient with late-stage renal cancer are provided.ConclusionOur data demonstrate that intratumoral injection of CFA has major antitumor effects in a proportion of treated animals and is safe for use in human cancer patients. Further trials in human cancer patients are therefore warranted. Our novel treatment provides a simple and inexpensive cancer immunotherapy, immediately applicable to a wide range of solid tumors, and is suitable to patients in developing countries and advanced care settings.

MERTK in cancer therapy: Targeting the receptor tyrosine kinase in tumor cells and the immune system

2020 â—½  
Vol 213 â—½  
pp. 107577 â—½  
Author(s):  
Justus M. Huelse â—½  
Diana M. Fridlyand â—½  
Shelton Earp â—½  
Deborah DeRyckere â—½  
Douglas K. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Immune System â—½  
Cancer Therapy â—½  
Tyrosine Kinase â—½  
Tumor Cells â—½  
Receptor Tyrosine Kinase

scholarly journals Talkin’ Toxins: From Coley’s to Modern Cancer Immunotherapy

Toxins â—½  
2020 â—½  
Vol 12 (4) â—½  
pp. 241 â—½  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Carlson â—½  
John C. Flickinger â—½  
Adam E. Snook
Keyword(s):  
Immune System â—½  
Cancer Immunotherapy â—½  
Cancer Patients â—½  
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors â—½  
Checkpoint Inhibitors â—½  
Cell Therapies â—½  
Autologous Cell â—½  
Anti Cancer â—½  
Infected Cells â—½  
Fight Against Cancer

The ability of the immune system to precisely target and eliminate aberrant or infected cells has long been studied in the field of infectious diseases. Attempts to define and exploit these potent immunological processes in the fight against cancer has been a longstanding effort dating back over 100 years to when Dr. William Coley purposefully infected cancer patients with a cocktail of heat-killed bacteria to stimulate anti-cancer immune processes. Although the field of cancer immunotherapy has been dotted with skepticism at times, the success of immune checkpoint inhibitors and recent FDA approvals of autologous cell therapies have pivoted immunotherapy to center stage as one of the most promising strategies to treat cancer. This review aims to summarize historic milestones throughout the field of cancer immunotherapy as well as highlight current and promising immunotherapies in development.

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