STING-activating drug delivery systems: Design strategies and biomedical applications

The stimulator of interferon genes (STING) shows promising clinical activity in infectious diseases and tumors. However, the lack of targeting capability and intracellular stability of STING agonists severely limits the therapeutic efficacy. Recently, drug delivery systems (DDSs) overcome these delivery barriers of STING agonists via passive or active cell targeting, prolonged blood circulation and drug release, and lysosome escape, etc. In this review, we will describe in detail how existing DDSs are designed to overcome delivery barriers and activate the STING pathway, and the current biomedical applications of STING-activating DDSs in the treatments of infectious diseases and tumors. Finally, the prospects and challenges of DDSs in STING activation are discussed. (c) 2021 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

DDSs can overcome delivery barriers of STING agonists through passive or active cell targeting, prolonged blood circulation and drug release, lysosome escape, etc., to activate the STING pathway. Currently, DDSs are widely applied in the treatments of infectious diseases and tumors, but they still face some prospects and challenges in STING activation.