Biomaterial-enhanced cancer vaccines

Abstract

Cancer vaccines are a promising strategy for preventing cancer progression through antitumor immunity activation. Some vaccines, such as Sipuleucel-T (an autologous active cellular immunotherapy), have been applied clinically. However, systemic toxicity and low immunogenicity have restricted their broad clinical application. Furthermore, the off-target effects induced by immunostimulatory adjuvants and cytokines also curtail cancer vaccine applications. Polymers, scaffolds, lipids, microneedles, and other biomaterials offer advantageous properties, such as excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, flexible size, high loading capacity for immune-related components, and a large surface area for immune ligand binding. Thus, various biomaterials are applied as immune adjuvants in cancer vaccines to enhance cancer antigen immunogenicity, protect cargoes from the surrounding microenvironment, and promote antigen presentation. Herein, we divide biomaterial-enhanced cancer vaccines into peptide and protein vaccines, nucleic acid-based vaccines, tumor cell-based compound vaccine, and virus-based vaccines and summarize advances and challenges associated with the use of biomaterials in cancer vaccines.

Keywords

• Cancer vaccine
• Biomaterial
• Drug delivery system
• Nanoparticle