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Targeted modulation of immune cells and tissues using engineered biomaterials

Nature Reviews Bioengineering volume 1, pages 107–124 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Therapies modulating the immune system offer the prospect of treating a wide range of conditions including infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity. Biomaterials can promote specific targeting of immune cell subsets in peripheral or lymphoid tissues and modulate the dosage, timing and location of stimulation, thereby improving the safety and efficacy of vaccines and immunotherapies. Here, we review recent advances in biomaterials-based strategies, focusing on targeting of lymphoid tissues, circulating leukocytes, tissue-resident immune cells and immune cells at disease sites. These approaches can improve the potency and efficacy of immunotherapies by promoting immunity or tolerance against different diseases.

Key points

  • In immunotherapy, choosing the right target cell, tissue and treatment duration is essential to ensure effective immunomodulation while avoiding toxicity.

  • Biomaterial-mediated targeting of immune cells in lymph nodes improves the potency and efficacy of vaccines by promoting immunity or tolerance.

  • Circulating migratory immune cells can be targeted to perform as living chaperones to carry therapeutics into tissues.

  • Systemic administration or intratumoral injection of nanomaterials and therapeutic depots can selectively accumulate and target immune cells in tumours.

  • Reducing biomaterial complexity is essential to facilitate clinical translation.

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Fig. 1: Primary and secondary lymphoid organs.
Fig. 2: Targeting therapeutics to tissue-draining lymph nodes.
Fig. 3: Targeting lymph node-resident cells and lymph node subregions.
Fig. 4: Targeting systemic lymphoid organs.
Fig. 5: Targeting circulating immune cells.
Fig. 6: Targeting tissue-resident immune cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Marble Center for Nanomedicine, the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, the NIH (awards CA247632, EB031082, U01-CA265706, AI147845, AI162307, AI161297 and CA235375 to D.J.I.) and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research. This material is based upon work supported in part by the US Army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT, under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-18-2-0048. D.J.I. is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Parisa Yousefpour, Kaiyuan Ni & Darrell J. Irvine

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Darrell J. Irvine

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Darrell J. Irvine

  4. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Darrell J. Irvine

  5. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA

    Darrell J. Irvine

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The manuscript was drafted and revised by P.Y., K.N. and D.J.I.

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Correspondence to Darrell J. Irvine.

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Competing interests

D.J.I. is an inventor on patents related to albumin hitchhiking (discussed under ‘Principles of lymph node targeting’), nanoparticle modification of T cells (discussed under ‘Backpacking’ cells’) and alum-binding cytokines (discussed under ‘Intratumoral delivery of biomaterials for immune cell targeting’). These patents have been licensed to Elicio Therapeutics, Repertoire Immune Medicines and Ankyra Therapeutics, respectively, and D.J.I. holds equity in these companies. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Yousefpour, P., Ni, K. & Irvine, D.J. Targeted modulation of immune cells and tissues using engineered biomaterials. Nat Rev Bioeng 1, 107–124 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-022-00016-2

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