Dendritic Cell-Targeted Nanoparticles to Enhance T Cell Activation and Immune Checkpoint Modulation

Introduction: Dendritic cells (DCs) within the tumor microenvironment (TME) have insufficient capacity to activate T cells through antigen presentation. Furthermore, the programmed cell-death ligand 1 (PD-L1), abundantly expressed on tumor-associated DCs, binds the programmed cell-death 1 (PD-1)-positive T cells, and suppresses their immune function. Here, we present a strategy to simultaneously promote antigen cross-presentation by DCs while blocking the inhibitory interactions of PD-L1 on DCs to enhance T cell-mediated anti-tumor immune responses within the TME.