Reshaping hypoxia and silencing CD73 via biomimetic gelatin nanotherapeutics to boost immunotherapy

The ubiquitous hypoxic microenvironment at the tumor site helps to regulate hypoxic inducible factor (HIF-1α), up-regulate downstream CD73-adenosine (CD73-ADO) pathways, and further result in effector T cell function exhaustion, which is regarded as a crucial adverse factor in the poor clinical efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy (ICB). How to reshape hypoxic microenvironment and silence CD73 remains a huge challenge to improve ICB therapeutic outcomes. In this study, cancer cell membrane-camouflaged gelatin nanoparticles (CSG@B16F10) were designed to co-deliver oxygen-generating agent catalase (CAT) and CD73siRNA, thus enhancing tumor oxygenation and alleviating CD73-ADO pathway-mediated T cell immunosuppression. The fabricated biomimetic nanoparticles could efficiently achieve immune evading and homologous targeting by virtue of the retention of cancer cell membrane protein. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-responsive gelatin nanoparticles were gradually disintegrated to accelerate the release of payloads. Rapidly released CAT was found to relieve tumor hypoxia by generating endogenous oxygen, while CD73siRNA effectively silenced target gene, synergically inhibiting CD73 protein expression and facilitating T-cell-specific immunity. Upon introduction of CSG@B16F10 in melanoma-bearing mice, PD-L1 checkpoint blockade achieved optimal tumor suppression (∼83%). The enhanced immune efficacy was mainly manifested by enhanced cytotoxic T cell (CTL), reduced regulatory T cells (Tregs), and increased anti-tumor cytokine secretion. This work presents a new paradigm for the ideal design of biomimetic nanoplatforms and the synergistic treatment of hypoxia alleviation and CD73 silence, greatly promising for enhancing clinical immune potency of PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockade.