Porous Materials for Immune Modulation

Abstract

Biocompatible materials have a great potential to engineer immunology towards therapeutic applications. Among them, porous materials have attracted much attention for immune modulation due to their unique porous structure. The large surface area and pore space offer high loading capacity for various payloads including peptides, proteins and even cells. We first introduce recent developments in the porous particles that can deliver immunomodulatory agents to antigen presenting cells for immunomodulation. Then, we review recent developments in the porous implants that can act as a cellattracting/ delivering platform to generate artificial immunomodulatory environments in the body. Lastly, we summarize recent findings of immunogenic porous materials that can induce strong immune responses without additional adjuvants. We also discuss future direction of porous materials to enhance their immunomodulatory potential for immunotherapeutic applications.