Functional T cell activation by smart nanosystems for effective cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapy (e.g., checkpoint blockade, adoptive T cell therapy, cancer vaccine) has emerged as one of the most important treatment modalities for cancer in the past two decades. While these approaches are promising, the response rates observed in clinical trials are less than 30% due to tumor heterogeneity and complexity of the tumor microenvironment. Smart nanosystems have the potential to address some of the limitations associated with immunotherapy. Herein, we review applications of nanosystem-mediated immunotherapy for functional T cell activation, including formation of artificial antigen presenting cells, cancer nanovaccination, tumor microenvironment modulation, and combination therapy. Finally, we propose areas of research for the future development of nanosystem-mediated cancer immunotherapy. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.