Spatiotemporal transformable nano-assembly for on-demand drug delivery to enhance anti-tumor immunotherapy

Abstract

Induction of tumor cell senescence has become a promising strategy for anti-tumor immunotherapy, but fibrotic matrix severely blocks senescence inducers penetration and immune cells infiltration. Herein, we designed a cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) triggered structure-transformable nano-assembly (HSD-P@V), which can directionally deliver valsartan (Val, CAFs regulator) and doxorubicin (DOX, senescence inducer) to the specific targets. In detail, DOX is conjugated with hyaluronic acid (HA) via diselenide bonds (Se-Se) to form HSD micelles, while CAFs-sensitive peptide is grafted onto the HSD to form a hydrophilic polymer, which is coated on Val nanocrystals (VNs) surface for improving the stability and achieving responsive release. Once arriving at tumor microenvironment and touching CAFs, HSD-P@V disintegrates into VNs and HSD micelles due to sensitive peptide detachment. VNs can degrade the extracellular matrix, leading to the enhanced penetration of HSD. HSD targets tumor cells, releases DOX to induce senescence, and recruits effector immune cells. Furthermore, senescent cells are cleared by the recruited immune cells to finish the integrated anti-tumor therapy. In vitro and in vivo results show that the nano-assembly remarkably inhibits tumor growth as well as lung metastasis, and extends tumor-bearing mice survival. This work provides a promising paradigm of programmed delivering multi-site nanomedicine for cancer immunotherapy.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Cells senescence / Tumor stroma / Structure transformable / Programmed delivery / Anti-tumor immunotherapy

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81972893, 82172719), Natural Science Foundation of Henan (212300410071), Training program for young key teachers in Henan Province (2020GGJS019).

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.ajps.2024.100888.

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