Enhancing Cancer Chemo-Immunotherapy: Innovative Approaches for Overcoming Immunosuppression by Functional Nanomaterials.

Chemotherapy is a critical modality in cancer therapy to combat malignant cell proliferation by directly attacking cancer cells and inducing immunogenic cell death, serving as a vital component of multi-modal treatment strategies for enhanced therapeutic outcomes. However, chemotherapy may inadvertently contribute to the immunosuppression of the tumor microenvironment (TME), inducing the suppression of antitumor immune responses, which can ultimately affect therapeutic efficacy. Chemo-immunotherapy, combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy in cancer treatment, has emerged as a ground-breaking approach to target and eliminate malignant tumors and revolutionize the treatment landscape, offering promising, durable responses for various malignancies. Notably, functional nanomaterials have substantially contributed to chemo-immunotherapy by co-delivering chemo-immunotherapeutic agents and modulating TME. In this review, recent advancements in chemo-immunotherapy are thus summarized to enhance treatment effectiveness, achieved by reversing the immunosuppressive TME (ITME) through the exploitation of immunotherapeutic drugs, or immunoregulatory nanomaterials. The effects of two-way immunomodulation and the causes of immunoaugmentation and suppression during chemotherapy are illustrated. The current strategies of chemo-immunotherapy to surmount the ITME and the functional materials to target and regulate the ITME are discussed and compared. The perspective on tumor immunosuppression reversal strategy is finally proposed.

Self-Assembled Nanomaterials for Enhanced Phototherapy of Cancer.

Following the wisdom of nature to assemble functional candidates into exquisite nanoarchitectures is emerging as a promising field of research and has been widely applied in biomedical sciences. Owing to their excellent properties of structural controllability, functional diversity, dynamic adjustability, and prominent biocompatibility, the self-assembled nanoarchitectures come to play a pivotal role in fighting against cancer. This review outlines the most up-to-date developments in constructing phototherapeutic nanomaterials for photodynamic and photothermal therapy (PDT and PTT) of tumors, with emphasis on design ideas, building blocks, and advantageous characteristics of self-assembly. The prominent activities of cancer therapy obtained by these photoinduced nanotheranostics are also explored in-depth, together with the connections between the specific nanostructures and unique features, providing a comprehensive understanding of the self-assembled nanomaterials in improving the outcomes of PDT and PTT. This review aims to highlight the significance of self-assembled nanomaterials in enhancing phototherapeutic efficacy and to promote its development in various research interests ranging from material science and nanoscience to biomedicine and clinical medicine.