The New Frontier in Medicine at the Convergence of Nanotechnology and Immunotherapy

This chapter provides an overview of the field of nanotechnology, its current applications and potential use in biology and medicine. We are witnessing the convergence of nanotechnology and biological sciences, which has the potential to revolutionize medical research and immunotherapy. The combination of nanotechnology and molecular biology has already generated a myriad of nanoscale-based devices and methods for probing the cell machinery, elucidating intimate life processes that were heretofore invisible to human inquiry, and detecting early signs of disease occurring at the molecular level. Furthermore, applied research in nanotechnology has now led to the development of nanoparticles (NPs) that can be engineered with multiple useful therapeutic features, involving various payloads with antigens and/or immunomodulatory agents such as cytokines, ligands for immunostimulatory receptors or antagonists for immunosuppressive receptors. In this chapter, we review multiple approaches to NP-based therapies designed to affect the tumor microenvironment and stimulate innate and adaptive immune systems to obtain effective anti-tumor immune responses for novel and improved immunotherapy.