PEGylated graphene oxide-mediated stimulation of vascular endothelial cells and responsive release of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor for efficient chemo-immunotherapy against cancer

However, only 10–30% of patients respond to ICB, primarily due to poor immunogenicity and insufficient T cell infiltration in solid tumors. Herein, we presented an approach for high-performance cancer treatment using the programmed cell death protein-1 and programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitor (BMS-202)-loaded PEGylated graphene oxide (GPi).

On the one hand, GPi dissociated tight junctions of vascular endothelial cells (VECs) in tumor, thus promoting the extravasation and intratumoral accumulation of liposomal doxorubicin (LipDox), which then effectively induced immunogenic cell death of tumor cells. On the other hand, GPi also stimulated VECs to upregulate the expression of cell-cell interaction molecules, such as intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, which facilitated the infiltration of T cells in tumor.