Recent advances in the development of metallodrugs for cancer chemoimmunotherapy

Abstract

Chemoimmunotherapy, with the advantages of chemotherapeutics and immunotherapeutics, has emerged as an effective strategy for cancer treatment, decreasing the drug dosage and improving the curative effect. Chemotherapy-based metal complexes, termed metallodrugs, are extensively used for cancer chemoimmunotherapy. To date, a growing number of research has been devoted to the immunomodulatory process of the body through various mechanisms, among which the induction of immunogenic cell death (ICD) is one of the potential mechanisms of action. Notably, the ICD-inducing metallodrugs can potentially inhibit metastasis and recurrence of tumors, which has attracted the attention of researchers from all walks of life in recent years. It is necessary to summarize specific strategies of immune response activation for metallodrug-mediated chemoimmunotherapy, providing reference significance for future clinical antitumor application. This review discusses the approaches for enhancing immunogenicity by metallodrugs involving organelle-targeting, regulated cell death mechanisms, and site-controlled toxicity. We also summarize recent advances in metallodrugs for combination therapy containing chemoimmunotherapy and hope to provide new insights for developing metallodrugs.