Localized immunomodulation technologies to enable cellular and organoid transplantation

Abstract

Cellular therapies have the potential to revolutionize medicine by using living cells to restore damaged tissues and treat various diseases wherein traditional medications cannot. In this literature review, the successes in the clinical landscape of cell therapy for heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders, type 1 diabetes, hemoglobinopathies, cancer and graft-versus-host-disease are discussed. While many cellular therapies have been approved or are currently being evaluated in clinical trials, the immune response to these therapies can be a barrier to their success. Innovative local immunomodulatory techniques can help by either reducing the risk of rejection or promoting immune tolerance to cellular therapies. For this purpose, cells are encapsulated in next-generation biomaterials to protect them from the immune system, mRNA therapeutics and nanoparticles are used to induce tolerance and prime specific immune cells, or genetic manipulation is used to design cells that can mitigate the immune response or lack essential surface molecules for immunorecognition to yield universal hypoimmune cell sources. Overall, keeping in mind the challenges research is still facing, cell therapies have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of a wide range of diseases and hold great promise for the future of medicine.