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CANCER NANOMEDICINE

Trojan horses for immunotherapy

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 196–197 (2019)Cite this article

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Responsive polymersomes enhance the action of STING-targeting cyclic dinucleotides in cancer therapy.

New classes of drugs require new delivery approaches. Nucleotide drugs have gained extensive attention recently with the approval of the first interfering RNA (RNAi) drug, patisiran, for hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis1. To reach the cell interior and exert their biological activity, most drugs passively diffuse through the hydrophobic lamella of the plasma membrane, taking advantage of their intrinsic hydrophobicity. Nucleotide drugs, however, are very hydrophilic and thus find the membrane impermeable. In the case of patisiran, the RNAi drug was coated in a lipid nanoparticle2, with the constituent lipids selected to enable efficient delivery to the cytoplasm after endocytosis.

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Fig. 1: Trojan attack.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jeffrey A. Hubbell & Melody A. Swartz

  2. Ben May Department of Cancer Research, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Melody A. Swartz

Authors
  1. Jeffrey A. Hubbell
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  2. Melody A. Swartz
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Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Hubbell or Melody A. Swartz.

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Hubbell, J.A., Swartz, M.A. Trojan horses for immunotherapy. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 196–197 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0380-7

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