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In recent years, to treat a diverse array of cancer forms, considerable advancements have been achieved in the field of cancer immunotherapies. However, these therapies encounter multiple challenges in clinical practice, such as high immune-mediated toxicity, insufficient accumulation in cancer tissues, and undesired off-target reactions. To tackle these limitations and enhance bioavailability, polymer micelles present potential solutions by enabling precise drug delivery to the target site, thus amplifying the effectiveness of immunotherapy. This review article offers an extensive survey of recent progress in cancer immunotherapy strategies utilizing micelles. These strategies include responsive and remodeling approaches to the tumor microenvironment (TME), modulation of immunosuppressive cells within the TME, enhancement of immune checkpoint inhibitors, utilization of cancer vaccine platforms, modulation of antigen presentation, manipulation of engineered T cells, and targeting other components of the TME. Subsequently, we delve into the present state and constraints linked to the clinical utilization of polymeric micelles. Collectively, polymer micelles demonstrate excellent prospects in tumor immunotherapy by effectively addressing the challenges associated with conventional cancer immunotherapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative disease. Intra-articular administration of flurbiprofen is frequently employed in clinic to treat OA, while repeated injections are required because of the limited effective duration. To improve therapeutic outcome and prolong the treatment interval, a poly(ε-caprolactone-co-lactide)-b-poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone-co-lactide) (PCLA–PEG–PCLA) triblock copolymer based flurbiprofen thermosensitive gel for the sustained intra-articular drug delivery was designed in this study. The anti-OA effects of this flurbiprofen thermogel were investigated on collagenase II-induced rat knee OA model by multiple approaches and compared with that of conventional sodium hyaluronate and flurbiprofen injecta. In vitro drug release studies indicated that flurbiprofen was sustained released from the thermosensitive gel for more than three weeks. This sustained drug release system exerted comparable short-term analgesic effects and distinctly improved long-term analgesic efficacy in terms of the increased percentage of the total ipsilateral paw print intensity and the reduced Knee-Bend scores of OA rats. The inflammatory response was attenuated in the samples of flurbiprofen gel treated group by showing decreased IL-1, IL-6, and IL-11 levels in the joint fluid and down-regulated IL-1, IL-6, IL-11, COX-2, TNF-α, and NF-κB/p65 expression in the articular cartilages. The results suggest the suitability of thermosensitive copolymer PCLA–PEG–PCLA for sustained intra-articular effects of flurbiprofen and provide in vivo experimental evidence for potential clinical application of this flurbiprofen delivery system to better management of OA cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]