Drug delivery

Hydrogel-based implants could be used to deliver innate immunity-stimulating agents to help treat solid tumors after surgical resection. The implants consist of biodegradable hyaluronic acid hydrogels cross-linked with polyethylene glycol diacrylate for physical stability during implantation and loaded with innate immunity-stimulating agents. In mouse models of surgically resected breast cancer and metastatic Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC), resection-site insertion of implants loaded with the dual toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7)/TLR8 agonist resiquimod or a tool compound transmembrane protein 173 (STING, TMEM173) agonist increased survival compared with no treatment. Next steps could include using the implants to deliver other immunotherapy agents in models of solid tumors...