Combination of an autophagy inhibitor with immunoadjuvants and an anti-PD-L1 antibody in multifunctional nanoparticles for enhanced breast cancer immunotherapy

BACKGROUND: The application of combination therapy for cancer treatment is limited due to poor tumor-specific drug delivery and the abscopal effect. METHODS: Here, PD-L1- and CD44-responsive multifunctional nanoparticles were developed using a polymer complex of polyethyleneimine and oleic acid (PEI-OA) and loaded with two chemotherapeutic drugs (paclitaxel and chloroquine), an antigen (ovalbumin), an immunopotentiator (CpG), and an immune checkpoint inhibitor (anti-PD-L1 antibody). RESULTS: PEI-OA greatly improved the drug loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency of the nanoplatform, while the anti-PD-L1 antibody significantly increased its cellular uptake compared to other treatment formulations. Pharmacodynamic experiments confirmed that the anti-PD-L1 antibody can strongly inhibit primary breast cancer and increase levels of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell at the tumor site. In addition, chloroquine reversed the “immune-cold” environment and improved the anti-tumor effect of both chemotherapeutics and immune checkpoint inhibitors, while it induced strong immune memory and prevented lung metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: Our strategy serves as a promising approach to the rational design of nanodelivery systems for simultaneous active targeting, autophagy inhibition, and chemotherapy that can be combined with immune-checkpoint inhibitors for enhanced breast cancer treatment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12916-022-02614-8.