Immunotherapy has emerged as one of the major options for cancer treatment in the past decade. With the successful application of immune checkpoint inhibitors and the introduction of immune regulatory gene therapy methods, it is now an essential treatment modality in cancer patients. The efficient delivery of therapeutic genes is a promising approach for enhancing cancer immunotherapy. These systems utilize viral or non-viral vectors to deliver therapeutic genes to immune cells, enabling them to target and eliminate cancer cells more effectively. Vector-based gene delivery strategies hold great promise for improving the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy and represent an exciting area of research for developing novel cancer treatments.
This Research Topic aims to explore recent advances of viral and non-viral vectors for gene delivery to immune cells to investigate how to conduct preclinical and clinical studies and develop feasible therapeutic strategies for cancer. Covering a range of subjects, including vector engineering and manufacture, biosafety assessment, and efficacy of immune gene delivery in preclinical settings (in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo) this collection will showcase translational potential and novel approaches for overcoming challenges associated with vector based immune gene delivery for cancer treatment.
We are interested in Original Research, Review/Mini-review, Perspective, Opinion, and Case Report articles, focusing on but not limited to the following areas:
- Strategies in the design and characterization of viral and non-viral vectors for immune gene delivery
- Novel approaches for vector optimization, including improved target-specificity; enhanced in vivo transduction efficiency; capability to induce long-term transgene expression; and reduced vector toxicity
- Viral vector delivery platforms for cancer vaccines and immunotherapy, including adeno-associated-virus (AAV) vectors, adenovirus vectors, or lentivirus vectors
- Non-viral delivery platforms for genome editing in personalized cancer immunotherapy – e.g., cell-penetrating peptides, lipid nanoparticles, inorganic delivery vectors, polymeric drug delivery, electroporation for ex vivo editing of immune cells
- Therapeutic payload delivery to the immune cells and tumor immune microenvironment
- Functional analysis of vector delivery of immune gene in molecular and cellular levels
- Explore the mechanisms for enhanced cancer therapy via combination of anti-cancer therapeutic strategies with vector delivery of immune gene therapies
- Preclinical and clinical studies for immune gene therapy in cancer, such as delivery of immune regulatory genes, CAR-T based in vivo gene therapy, TCR-T based in vivo gene therapy, and tissue-directed gene therapy
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this topic.
Dr. Dan Chen is an employee of Genentech, which is involved in the discovery and development of medicines for life-threatening diseases, including the first targeted antibody for cancer. The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the topic theme.
Immunotherapy has emerged as one of the major options for cancer treatment in the past decade. With the successful application of immune checkpoint inhibitors and the introduction of immune regulatory gene therapy methods, it is now an essential treatment modality in cancer patients. The efficient delivery of therapeutic genes is a promising approach for enhancing cancer immunotherapy. These systems utilize viral or non-viral vectors to deliver therapeutic genes to immune cells, enabling them to target and eliminate cancer cells more effectively. Vector-based gene delivery strategies hold great promise for improving the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy and represent an exciting area of research for developing novel cancer treatments.
This Research Topic aims to explore recent advances of viral and non-viral vectors for gene delivery to immune cells to investigate how to conduct preclinical and clinical studies and develop feasible therapeutic strategies for cancer. Covering a range of subjects, including vector engineering and manufacture, biosafety assessment, and efficacy of immune gene delivery in preclinical settings (in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo) this collection will showcase translational potential and novel approaches for overcoming challenges associated with vector based immune gene delivery for cancer treatment.
We are interested in Original Research, Review/Mini-review, Perspective, Opinion, and Case Report articles, focusing on but not limited to the following areas:
- Strategies in the design and characterization of viral and non-viral vectors for immune gene delivery
- Novel approaches for vector optimization, including improved target-specificity; enhanced in vivo transduction efficiency; capability to induce long-term transgene expression; and reduced vector toxicity
- Viral vector delivery platforms for cancer vaccines and immunotherapy, including adeno-associated-virus (AAV) vectors, adenovirus vectors, or lentivirus vectors
- Non-viral delivery platforms for genome editing in personalized cancer immunotherapy – e.g., cell-penetrating peptides, lipid nanoparticles, inorganic delivery vectors, polymeric drug delivery, electroporation for ex vivo editing of immune cells
- Therapeutic payload delivery to the immune cells and tumor immune microenvironment
- Functional analysis of vector delivery of immune gene in molecular and cellular levels
- Explore the mechanisms for enhanced cancer therapy via combination of anti-cancer therapeutic strategies with vector delivery of immune gene therapies
- Preclinical and clinical studies for immune gene therapy in cancer, such as delivery of immune regulatory genes, CAR-T based in vivo gene therapy, TCR-T based in vivo gene therapy, and tissue-directed gene therapy
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by robust and relevant validation (clinical cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this topic.
Dr. Dan Chen is an employee of Genentech, which is involved in the discovery and development of medicines for life-threatening diseases, including the first targeted antibody for cancer. The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the topic theme.
