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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Nov 4.
Published in final edited form as: Drug Discov Today. 2021 Feb 19;26(6):1482–1489. doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2021.02.017

Figure 1. Nanoparticle targeting of the immune system in tumor and blood.

Figure 1

Nanotherapies can aim for the holistic manipulation of the immune system. (1) Nanoparticles (NP) can help to inhibit regulatory T cells, elicit a strong CD8+ T cell infiltration and consequently restore the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) populations in the tumor microenvironment (TME). (2) NPs can exploit the inherent tumor-homing capabilities of myeloid immune cells and be delivered to tumors via immune cell hitchhiking. (3) NPs can be used for directly inhibiting the activity of M2-like macrophages in the TME, and deliver immunomodulatory cargo that can polarize M2-like towards M1-like macrophages. (4) NPs can be specifically modified and target or inhibit specific immune cell sub-populations in circulation.