title: Engineering self-assembled materials to study and direct immune function.
abstract: The immune system is an awe-inspiring control structure that maintains a delicate and constantly changing balance between pro-immune functions that fight infection and cancer, regulatory or suppressive functions involved in immune tolerance, and homeostatic resting states. These activities are determined by integrating signals in space and time; thus, improving control over the densities, combinations, and durations with which immune signals are delivered is a central goal to better combat infectious disease, cancer, and autoimmunity. Self-assembly presents a unique opportunity to synthesize materials with well-defined compositions and controlled physical arrangement of molecular building blocks. This review highlights strategies exploiting these capabilities to improve the understanding of how precisely-displayed cues interact with immune cells and tissues. We present work centered on fundamental properties that regulate the nature and magnitude of immune response, highlight pre-clinical and clinical applications of self-assembled technologies in vaccines, cancer, and autoimmunity, and describe some of the key manufacturing and regulatory hurdles facing these areas.
authors.affiliation: Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, 8228 Paint Branch Drive, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Tostanoski
authors.affiliation: Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, 8228 Paint Branch Drive, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 685 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA; Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, 22 S. Greene St., Baltimore, MD 21201, USA; United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 10 North Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. Electronic address: cmjewell@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Jewell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D057005:Bioengineering; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology*; D007167:Immunotherapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D014612:Vaccines / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D014612:Vaccines
keywords: Autoimmunity and tolerance; Biomaterial; Cancer; Immunomodulation; Manufacturing, regulatory approval and FDA; Nanoparticle, microparticle, micelle, liposome, polyplex, lipoplex, polyelectrolyte multilayer; Nanotechnology; Non-covalent, hydrophobic, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interaction; Self-assembly; Sensor, diagnostic, and theranostic; Vaccine and immunotherapy