Role of Nanoparticles as Immunotherapy Agents

Dear Colleagues,

The application of nanotechnology offers tremendous advantages for diagnosis and therapy in various fields of medicine and, at present, about 230 NPs are used in medicine. The majority of them activate immunity or have no effects; a minority induce immunosuppression or dysregulation of the immune system. Currently, several studies explore the immunostimulating properties of NPs to be used for anticancer therapies and as a vaccine adjuvant and delivery system for infectious, immune, and allergic diseases, their use depending on their effects on various components of the immune system. These effects can be due to several NPs characteristics, such as chemical composition, size, surface charge, shape, dissolution, and, first of all, surface chemistry/functionalization and surface coating. NPs can be engineered to either avoid interaction or to specifically interact with the immune system, inducing immunosuppression or immune stimulation. Immune stimulation, undesirable in the case of hypersensitivity or inflammatory reactions and anaphylaxis, can be useful in applications for vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer immunotherapy. On the contrary, NP-induced immune-suppression may enhance the therapeutic benefits of treatments for allergies and autoimmune diseases and prevent rejection of transplanted organs.

The road has been opened by oncology and infectivology with exciting results. Hopefully, in the coming years, more trials will be conducted that will pave the way for registration studies for NP-based immunotherapy for autoimmune and allergic diseases.

This Special Issue will collect reviews and original works to represent an updated reference in the field.

Prof. Dr. Mario Di Gioacchino
Guest Editor

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• Nanoparticles
• Targeted therapy
• Delivery system
• Immunotherapy adjuvant
• Immunosuppression
• Immune stimulation
• Cancer
• Infectious diseases
• Immune-allergic diseases