Bifunctional lipids in tumor vaccines: An outstanding delivery carrier and promising immune stimulator.

[Display omitted] • Liposomes self-assembled from lipids are excellent targeted transport carrier materials. • Lipids have the role of immune stimulation, which can stimulate the effect of innate immunity. • Liposomes combined with targeted transport and immunostimulatory effects have great advantages in cancer vaccines. Cancer is still a major threat for human life, and the cancer immunotherapy can be more optimized to prolong life. However, the effect of immunotherapy is not encouraging. In order to achieve outstanding immune effect, it is necessary to strengthen antigens uptake of antigen presenting cells. Adjuvants were added to vaccines to achieve this purpose, which could be divided into two types: as an immunostimulatory molecule, the innate immunities of the body were triggered; or as a delivery carrier, and antigens were cross-delivery through the "cytoplasmic pathway" and released at a specific location. This paper reviewed the relevant research status of tumor vaccine immune adjuvants in recent years. Among the review, the function, combination strategies and derivatives of lipid A were discussed in detail. In addition, some suggestions on the existing problems and research direction of lipids as tumor vaccine adjuvants were put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]