Biomimetic Nanoparticle Vaccines for Cancer Therapy

It is currently understood that in order for a tumor to successfully grow, it must evolve means of evading immune surveillance. In the past several decades, researchers have leveraged increases in the knowledge of tumor immunology to develop therapies capable of augmenting endogenous immunity and eliciting strong antitumor responses. In particular, the goal of anticancer vaccination is to train the immune system to properly utilize its own resources in the fight against cancer. Although attractive in principle, there are currently only limited examples of anticancer vaccines that are successfully translated to the clinic. Recently, there has been a significant push toward the use of nanotechnology for designing vaccine candidates that exhibit enhanced potency and specificity. Here, the recent developments in the field of anticancer nanovaccines are discussed. By taking advantage of the flexibility offered by nanomedicine to purposefully program immune responses, this new generation of vaccines has the potential to address many of the hurdles facing traditional platforms. A specific emphasis is placed on the emergence of cell membrane-coated nanoparticles, a novel biomimetic platform that can be used to generate personalized nanovaccines that elicit strong, multiantigenic antitumor responses.