Recent advancements in mitochondria-targeted nanoformulations for cancer immunotherapy

Mitochondria plays an important regulatory role in the anticancer immune response by directly participating in the activation, proliferation and differentiation of immune cells, regulating multiple immune signaling pathways and affecting the activation and function of tumor-infiltrating immune cells with the help of the change of mitochondrial dynamics and metabolic. Mitochondria-targeted immunotherapy is an emerging cancer treatment strategy. The constructed mitochondrial targeted nanoformulation significantly improves the anti-cancer efficacy by inducing immunogenic cell death, regulating mitochondrial dynamics and metabolism, activating immune signaling pathways and other immune strategies. This review focuses on the field of cancer immunotherapy, introduces the relationship between mitochondria and tumor immunity, and summarizes the design of mitochondria-targeted nanomaterials in the past five years. Finally, the challenges and prospects of mitochondria-targeted nanoformulations in anti-cancer immunotherapy are discussed in this paper, which offers support for the development of novel mitochondria-targeted agents for cancer immunotherapy in the future.