Rediscovery of nanoparticle-based therapeutics: boosting immunogenic cell death for potential application in cancer immunotherapy

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) occurring by chemical and physical stimuli has shown the potential to activate an adaptive immune response in the immune-competent living body through the release of danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) into the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, limitations to the long-term immune responses and systemic toxicity of conventional ICD inducers have led to unsatisfactory therapeutic efficacy in ICD-based cancer immunotherapy. Until now, various nanoparticle-based ICD-inducers have been developed to induce an antitumor immune response without severe toxicity, and to efficiently elicit an anticancer immune response against target cancer cells. In this review, we introduce a recent advance in the designs and applications of nanoparticle-based therapeutics to elicit ICD for effective cancer immunotherapy. In particular, combination strategies of nanoparticle-based ICD inducers with typical theranostic modalities are introduced intensively. Subsequently, we discuss the expected challenges and future direction of nanoparticle-based ICD inducers to provide strategies for boosting ICD in cancer immunotherapy. These versatile designs and applications of nanoparticle-based therapeutics for ICD can provide advantages to improve the therapeutic efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.