Abstract
Immunotherapy has shown promising applications in cancer treatment as it boosts the systemic immune response. Existing immunotherapy strategies have certain drawbacks which can be addressed by engineered biomaterials. In this review, we focused on advanced immunotherapy methods involving implantable and injectable biomaterials for the treatment of cancer. Engineered biomaterials as carriers for immunomodulatory agents aid in the local drug delivery, thus reducing the frequency of off-target side effects. Also, biomaterial-based cancer vaccines have the potential to target specific tissues by finely altering the physical properties of the drug to achieve desired drug release kinetics.
Highlights
The earliest definition of biomaterials was developed in 1972, during the Consensus Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB), during which biomaterial was defined as 'a nonviable material used in a medical device, intended to interact with biological systems; As per the current definition, it is a 'material intended to interface with biological systems to evaluate, treat, augment or replace any tissue, organ or function of the body [1,4]
In the case of implants, the foreign body response is a two-step process consisting of an inflammatory reaction followed by wound-healing [7] which triggers the accumulation of a thick layer of collagen on the implant. This deteriorates the efficacy of implanted material [7, 8] The potential applications of biomaterials involving synthetic nanoparticles and microparticles, lipid carriers, injectable scaffolds, and hydrogels are directed to the field of immunotherapy
Current developments in immunotherapy and biomaterials have paved the way for a promising approach towards overcoming clinical limitations in the field of cancer immunotherapy
Summary
The earliest definition of biomaterials was developed in 1972, during the Consensus Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB), during which biomaterial was defined as 'a nonviable material used in a medical device, intended to interact with biological systems; As per the current definition, it is a 'material intended to interface with biological systems to evaluate, treat, augment or replace any tissue, organ or function of the body [1,4]. This deteriorates the efficacy of implanted material [7, 8] The potential applications of biomaterials involving synthetic nanoparticles and microparticles, lipid carriers, injectable scaffolds, and hydrogels are directed to the field of immunotherapy. Engineered biomaterials that are injectable, implantable, and transdermal devices (fig 2) have paved the way in the development of localized delivery systems for immune therapeutics [28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35].
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