• Usage of Nanoparticle Materials for Cancer vaccination
  • zahra Rajabzadeh Kheybari,1,* Elham Aminifar,2
    1. Student research committee, Islamic azad university, Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
    2. Student research committee, Islamic azad university, Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran.


  • Introduction: In 2018, almost 9.6 million deaths from cancer have occurred around the world. cancer treatment aims are eradicating tumor cells without affecting normal and healthy cells. Although significant progress has been made to understand the cancer pathogenesis, the development of cancer treatment promotes life-expectancy in patients. Immunotherapy is an excellent treatment technique to stimulate host immune response which aims to suppress the growth of tumors and metastasis. The cancer patients receive immunotherapy through the treatment vaccine that stimulates the antigen-specific T cells and tumor relevant chemokine receptors, but prevents the tumor-induced suppressor cells from being absorbed and their expansion. so, Researchers use DC (Dendritic cell) manipulation with special tools to combat the limitations of the immune system to diagnose cancer. Cancer vaccines that target the early stages of antigen processing can potentially improve therapeutic and preventive effects not only against the primary tumor but also for metastasis or non-efficient relapse and will benefit from more patients, especially those that lack sufficient levels of pre-existing anti-tumor T cells and/or immune checkpoint molecule. Nanoparticle (NP) systems as a vaccine or adjuvant to enhance immune response and antigen delivery are functional tools. Here, we review recent advances in the use of NP systems for vaccines and discuss about challenges for public use.
  • Methods: In this review, after searching on PubMed, SID, Chocrane, and Google scholar database with “nanoparticles”, “cancer vaccine” and “immunotherapy” keywords and their Mesh, we found 29 articles that have been published in last 5 years (2015-2019). 18 articles were excluded from the study by considering the titles and 5 others by checking abstracts. finally, 6 completely related articles were included in our study.
  • Results: The main goal of the current study was to determine that NPs are promising tools to enhance antigen presentation and stimulate strong immune responses to effective vaccination against cancer. We conclude that Different applications of nanotechnology in cancer vaccinations can provide nanoparticles - based solutions to promote this exciting background of cancer therapy. NP-based delivery systems are popular carriers for the delivery of antigenic material to antigen-presenting cells (APCs). NP-based therapeutic strategies can be used to improve the delivery system of antigens and primary immune cells as an adjuvant to amplify the immune response of cancer and dramatically increase the effectiveness of cancer vaccines. Also, Different types of NP systems can be devised reasonably to resolve technical challenges in cancer vaccinations and the immune system, such as polymeric NP, liposomes, virus and inorganic NP which are highly concentrated in the field of vaccine research. Moreover, NP delivery systems have been used to amplify the therapeutic potential autologous DCs and synthetic artificial APCs, immunogenic cell death, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and adoptive T-cell therapy.
  • Conclusion: Clinically, as nanotechnology for tumor immunotherapy is a relatively new approach, there are currently no successful guidelines for evaluating the safety and therapeutic benefits of clinical trials. However, research data show that NPs have great potency in immune cell modulation. NP-based vaccine delivery for cancer is still in its outset. Widespread studies are needed to confirm the reproducibility, rigor and applicability of reported findings to the clinic. The basic mechanisms underlying how nanoparticle physical properties affect biological interactions are yet poorly understood, and real-time tracking of NPs while uptake and clearance in vivo are generally not well defined. NP-mediated cancer vaccine may require lengthy, personalized, enhanced immune response activating to exert its possible therapeutic effect. studies need to be carried out in order cheap, robust, repeatable methods for mass-scale nanoparticle synthesis are needed for cancer vaccines in the future. There is also a need for a reliable guideline on how to use this type of vaccine to gain the best results.
  • Keywords: cancer vaccine, nanoparticle, immunotherapy, nanovaccine