Abstract:
Thanks to the growing knowledge about cancers and their interactions with the immune system, a huge number of therapeutic cancer vaccines have been developed in the past two decades. Despite encouraging results in pre-clinical models, cancer vaccines have not yet achieved significant clinical efficacy. Several factors may contribute to such poor results, including the difficulty of triggering a strong immune response and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Many strategies are currently being explored. Different types of adjuvants have been incorporated into vaccine formulations to improve their efficacy, as cancer antigens are usually poorly immunogenic. Nanoparticle systems are promising tools as they act as carriers for antigens and can be surface-modified so that they specifically target antigen-presenting cells in lymph nodes. Bioinspired nanomaterials are ideal candidates thanks to their biocompatibility. Recently, melanin-based nanoparticles were reported to efficiently localize into draining lymphoid tissues and trigger immune responses against loaded antigens. In addition, by virtue of their photochemical properties, melanin-based nanoparticles can also play an immunomodulatory role to promote anti-cancer responses in the context of photothermal therapy. In this review, we discuss the above-mentioned properties of melanin, and summarize the promising results of the melanin-based cancer vaccines recently reported in preclinical models.
摘要:
由于有关癌症及其与免疫系统相互作用的知识不断增长,在过去的二十年中,已经开发了大量的治疗性癌症疫苗。尽管在临床前模型中取得了令人鼓舞的结果,癌症疫苗尚未取得显著的临床疗效。有几个因素可能会导致如此糟糕的结果,包括难以触发强烈的免疫反应和免疫抑制的肿瘤微环境。目前正在探索许多策略。已将不同类型的佐剂掺入疫苗制剂中以提高其功效,因为癌症抗原通常免疫原性差。纳米颗粒系统是有前途的工具,因为它们充当抗原的载体并且可以被表面修饰,使得它们特异性地靶向淋巴结中的抗原呈递细胞。受生物启发的纳米材料由于其生物相容性而成为理想的候选者。最近,据报道,基于黑色素的纳米颗粒可以有效地定位到引流淋巴组织中,并引发针对负载抗原的免疫反应。此外,由于它们的光化学性质,在光热疗法的背景下,基于黑色素的纳米颗粒还可以发挥免疫调节作用以促进抗癌反应。在这次审查中,我们讨论黑色素的上述特性,并总结了最近在临床前模型中报道的基于黑色素的癌症疫苗的有希望的结果。