Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 6, 2025
12:42
Paramyxoviruses for Tumor-targeted Immunomodulation: Design and Evaluation Ex Vivo
Published on: January 7, 2019
9.9K
Immunostimulatory biomaterials to boost tumor immunogenicity
Oluwaseyi T Shofolawe-Bakare1, Larry D Stokes, Mehjabeen Hossain
1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi, University, MS, USA. tawerfel@olemiss.edu.
Biomaterials Science
|October 13, 2020
Summary
Cancer immunotherapy faces challenges with "cold" tumors that resist treatment. Biomaterials offer a promising solution to enhance tumor immunogenicity and improve immunotherapy effectiveness by overcoming delivery and toxicity issues.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Biomaterials Science
Background:
- Cancer immunotherapy shows promise but is limited by
- cold" tumors that lack immune cell infiltration and exhibit immunosuppressive characteristics.
- These tumors are characterized by low tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and high levels of immunosuppressive cells and signals.
- Strategies to enhance tumor immunogenicity are crucial for improving immunotherapy efficacy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advancements in using immunostimulatory biomaterials to boost tumor immunogenicity.
- To address the challenges associated with current approaches for enhancing anti-tumor immune responses.
- To explore how biomaterials can overcome delivery and toxicity issues in cancer immunotherapy.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent scientific literature on biomaterials in cancer immunotherapy.
- Analysis of strategies to enhance tumor immunogenicity using immunostimulatory biomaterials.
- Discussion of challenges in drug delivery and in vivo stability for immune-stimulating agents.
Main Results:
- Biomaterials-based approaches demonstrate potential for enhancing tumor immunogenicity.
- These approaches can overcome systemic toxicity and improve the delivery of immune-stimulating agents.
- Biomaterials enable novel strategies for turning "cold" tumors into "hot" tumors responsive to immunotherapy.
Conclusions:
- Immunostimulatory biomaterials represent a promising strategy to improve cancer immunotherapy.
- Biomaterials can enhance tumor immunogenicity, overcome delivery challenges, and reduce dose-limiting toxicities.
- Further development of biomaterial-based approaches is essential for advancing cancer treatment.
Related Concept Videos
01:27Tumor Immunotherapy
1.3K
Immunotherapy is a treatment that boosts or manipulates the immune system to fight diseases, including cancer. For instance, by stimulating an immune response through vaccinations against viruses that cause cancers, like hepatitis B virus and human papillomavirus, these diseases can be prevented. Nonetheless, some cancer cells can avoid the immune system due to their rapid mutation and division. The immune response to many cancers involves three phases: elimination, equilibrium, and escape.
1.3K
02:17The Tumor Microenvironment
7.4K
Every normal cell or tissue is embedded in a complex local environment called stroma, consisting of different cell types, a basal membrane, and blood vessels. As normal cells mutate and develop into cancer cells, their local environment also changes to allow cancer progression. The tumor microenvironment (TME) consists of a complex cellular matrix of stromal cells and the developing tumor. The cross-talk between cancer cells and surrounding stromal cells is critical to disrupt normal tissue...
7.4K
01:30Cancer Vaccines
837
Cancer treatment vaccines are a rapidly evolving field that offers a promising approach to immunotherapy. Unlike traditional vaccines that prevent diseases, cancer treatment vaccines are designed to treat existing cancers by stimulating the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
Cancer vaccines come in two categories: preventive (prophylactic) and treatment (active). Preventive vaccines, such as the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, protect against viruses that cause certain...
Cancer vaccines come in two categories: preventive (prophylactic) and treatment (active). Preventive vaccines, such as the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, protect against viruses that cause certain...
837