International Journal of Nanomedicine

Advanced Nanomedicine for Cancer Therapy and Autoimmune Immunotherapy

Immune-mediated diseases, including autoimmune disorders and cancer, represent major global health burdens arising from immune system dysfunction. Conventional therapies aim to suppress or activate immune responses, yet their lack of specificity often results in systemic toxicity, off-target effects, and limited therapeutic efficacy. Current immunotherapies often involve a trade-off between therapeutic efficacy and safety. In autoimmune diseases, broad immunosuppression increases infection risk, causes systemic side effects, and provides limited activity at disease sites. In cancer, conventional anticancer drugs and immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint blockade, cancer vaccines, and tumor microenvironment (TME) modulators often lack sufficient tumor specificity, leading to systemic toxicity and limited effectiveness. Therefore, the development of nanotechnology-based therapeutic strategies is urgently needed to enhance target-site efficacy while minimizing systemic side effects in both cancer therapy and autoimmune disease treatment.

Nanomedicine has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges by enabling precise control over drug release, biodistribution, and immune cell targeting. Using nanocarriers, therapeutic agents can be selectively delivered to inflamed tissues or lymphoid organs via various administration routes, including intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular, oral, and mucosal. With rational nanocarrier design and route optimization, nanomedicine facilitates context-specific immune modulation—tailoring therapies to induce either anti-inflammatory or immunostimulatory effects with high precision. This strategy offers particular promise for achieving localized immunosuppression in autoimmune diseases and enhancing tumor-specific immunity in cancer therapy.

This Collection aims to spotlight recent advances in nanomedicine that harness diverse delivery strategies to enhance therapeutic efficacy in both autoimmune diseases and cancer therapy. Thus, this Collection invites submissions focused on nanomedicine-based strategies for targeted therapy and immune modulation in autoimmune diseases and cancer. In addition, nanomedicine-based delivery of therapeutic agents with immunomodulatory potential is also within the scope of this Collection. We welcome original research articles and comprehensive reviews. Interdisciplinary contributions that integrate pharmaceutics, nanotechnology, immunology, and translational science are particularly encouraged. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: (1) nanomedicine for cancer therapy, including the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents, antigens, immune enhancers, or modulators to tumors or lymphoid tissues; and (2) nanomedicine for autoimmune diseases, involving site-specific delivery of antigens or immunosuppressive agents to inflamed tissues or immune organs. This Collection aims to catalyze the development of next-generation nanomedicine-based therapies that are safer, more effective, and precisely targeted.

Please contact Haoyang Yi (Commissioning Editor) at haoyang.yi@taylorandfrancis.com with any queries regarding this Article Collection.

Guest Advisor

Prof. Yonghyun Lee

Professor Yonghyun Lee is an Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy, Ewha Womans University. He is focusing on the development of innovative strategies, aimed at targeted-modulating gut microbiome, apoptosis, and/or immune systems for the effective management of inflammation-related diseases, especially inflammatory bowel diseases, and cancer. He has published extensively in high-impact journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie, Small and ACS Nano. Also, he has been recognized with multiple research excellence awards including the KAST Promising Young Scientist Award and Ewha’s Award for Research Excellence.