Abstract
Adoptive cell transfer therapy is a promising anti-tumor immunotherapy in which effector immune cells are transferred to patients to treat tumors. However, one of its main limitations is the inefficient trafficking of inoculated effector cells to the tumor site and the small percentage of effector cells that remain activated when reaching the tumor. Multiple strategies have been attempted to improve the entry of effector cells into the tumor environment, often based on tumor types. It would be, however, interesting to develop a more general approach, to improve and facilitate the migration of specific activated effector lymphoid cells to any tumor type. We and others have recently demonstrated the potential for adoptive cell transfer therapy of the combined use of magnetic nanoparticle-loaded lymphoid effector cells together with the application of an external magnetic field to promote the accumulation and retention of lymphoid cells in specific body locations. The aim of this review is to summarize and highlight the recent findings in the field of magnetic accumulation and retention of effector cells in tumors after adoptive transfer, and to discuss the possibility of using this approach for tumor targeting with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells.
Highlights
For many years, conventional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been the main options to treat cancer
In spite of the attractiveness of magnetic NPs (MNPs)-based targeting of effector cells in Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT), some basic considerations must be fulfilled for these applications to be successful: (i) MNP must not show toxicity towards the lymphoid cells; (ii) lymphoid cells must be able to interact with the nanomaterial; (iii) the nanomaterial must be easy to produce in large amounts so that the numerous immune cells required for ACT can be loaded
This review highlights the recent findings on the effects of MNPs on lymphoid cells, their specific targeting through the application of an external magnetic field (EMF) and the possibility to use this strategy to target transferred cells to the tumor and solve one of the main limitations of ACT in cancer
Summary
Conventional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been the main options to treat cancer. It is known that multiple mechanisms can prevent the infiltration of effector cells in tumors such as: (i) the mismatch between the chemokine receptors and the chemokine pool in the tumor environment [37,38,39,40], (ii) the decrease in the expression of adhesion molecules, (iii) the aberrant tumor vasculature that can promote irregular blood flow and inefficient traffic of immune cells [41], and (iv) the possible role of the tumor endothelium as a barrier [42]. The design of more general approaches, which can be applied to a wide variety of tumors, would be of great interest
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