Smart bio-encapsulation for immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is considered a promising strategy in cancer treatment that has achieved auspicious clinical outcomes in various cancer malignancies. Despite all the advances in immunotherapy, there is much to do to improve the efficiency and decrease the side effects of immunotherapy. To improve the safety and efficacy of immunotherapy, excellent delivery technologies by leveraging biomaterials can be incorporated into immunotherapy to accomplish specific immune-activation in the tumor tissue and overcome immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. Therefore, biomaterial-based drug delivery systems can enhance antitumor immunity while decreasing immune-related adverse effects. In addition, they provide co-delivery of different therapeutic cargos, leading to more precise and efficient cancer treatment. This chapter provides an overview of current cancer immunotherapy strategies and how bionanomaterials (lipid-based nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, exosomes, DNA origami, and metallic nanoparticles) can mitigate immunotherapy limitations and enhance the efficiency of these strategies.