Recent advances in natural biomaterial-based hydrogels for controlled drug release and cancer immunotherapy applications
image: THE FIGURE ILLUSTRATES APPLICATION OF NATURAL BIOPOLYMER HYDROGELS AS A VERSATILE PLATFORM FOR ADVANCED DRUG DELIVERY AND CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY. STIMULI-RESPONSIVE HYDROGELS MADE FROM NATURAL POLYMERS PROVIDE CONTROLLED RELEASE OF CHEMOTHERAPY DRUGS AND IMMUNOTHERAPIES. THIS ACTIVATES KEY IMMUNE PATHWAYS (TLR/STING) TO GENERATE A POTENT ANTI-TUMOR RESPONSE. THE PLATFORM IS ALSO DESIGNED TO WORK SYNERGISTICALLY WITH OTHER TREATMENTS LIKE RADIOTHERAPY FOR ENHANCED CANCER THERAPY
Credit: Nano research, Tsinghua University Press
The global cancer burden continues to rise, increasing from 18.1 million cases in 2018 to nearly 20 million cases in 2022, and is expected to reach 35 million cases by 2050. Although immunotherapy has shown great potential in cancer treatment, its clinical effectiveness is still limited by low response rates and non-specific drug delivery. To address these issues, researchers are exploring controllable and targeted drug delivery strategies to improve the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy. Natural polymer hydrogels, due to their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and designability, have become ideal candidates for the next generation of cancer immunotherapy drug delivery platforms.
Authors team lead by Prof. Caiyun Fu from Zhejiang Sci-Tech university, School of life science and medicine collaboratively work in this article and delves into the potential of natural polymer-based hydrogels as innovative delivery platforms for cancer immunotherapy, aiming to overcome the limitations of current approaches. These hydrogels, derived from biopolymers such as polysaccharides, polyphenols, and proteins, possess biocompatibility, biodegradability, and stimuli-responsive properties that make them ideal candidates for targeted and sustained drug delivery.
Besides synthesis authors team explored various design strategies, including crosslinking methods (chemical and physical), administration routes (injectable, oral, sprayable, and implantable), and stimuli-responsive behavior (pH, temperature, light, electric, magnetic, enzymatic, and redox), to optimize hydrogel performance for effective cancer immunotherapy. These hydrogels have shown promise in delivering immunotherapeutic agents such as checkpoint inhibitors, cytokines, and Toll-like receptor agonists, while also modulating the tumor microenvironment to enhance therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, their synergistic effects with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and phototherapies offer a potential breakthrough in cancer treatment. Despite the significant advancement of hydrogel in cancer immunotherapy authors found that challenges such as degradation kinetics, bioactivity retention, and regulatory hurdles must be addressed for successful clinical translation. The review concludes by emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and advanced fabrication methods to fully realize the potential of natural polymer-based hydrogels in transforming cancer immunotherapy.
Contributors to the study includes Atif Ali, Wajid Ali, Abdur Raheem Aleem, Zhibin Yan, Chenguang Liu working under the kind supervision of Prof. Caiyun Fu at Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Research Center of New Technologies and Applications for Targeted Therapy of Major Diseases, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Drug Discovery and Development for Metabolic Diseases, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
This work was supported by grants from the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LD22H310004), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82473894) and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University Research Start-up Fund (No. 24042190-Y).
About Nano Research
Nano Research is a peer-reviewed, open access, international and interdisciplinary research journal, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society, published by Tsinghua University Press on the platform SciOpen. It publishes original high-quality research and significant review articles on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, ranging from basic aspects of the science of nanoscale materials to practical applications of such materials. After 18 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. Nano Research has published more than 1,000 papers every year from 2022, with its cumulative count surpassing 7,000 articles. In 2024 InCites Journal Citation Reports, its 2024 IF is 9.0 (8.7, 5 years), and it continues to be the Q1 area among the four subject classifications. Nano Research Award, established by Nano Research together with TUP and Springer Nature in 2013, and Nano Research Young Innovators (NR45) Awards, established by Nano Research in 2018, have become international academic awards with global influence.