Current strategies in cationic liposomal vaccine development for anti-cancer therapy

Nanomedicine is currently at the forefront of technology. Nanovaccines are a relevant development derived from this field and comprise nanoparticles ranging from 50-250 nm to deliver antigens and other immunomodulatory agents. Their formulation can include liposomes, which are widely known as safe and allow their engineering to be cationic, conferring a superior immunostimulatory effect. This promising strategy for vaccine delivery has gained interest in cancer as it provides higher targeting efficiency, increased antigen stability, prolonged circulation time, and enhanced uptake by antigen-presenting cells, mainly dendritic cells. Therefore, this minireview discusses recent research on cationic liposome-based vaccine delivery systems for anti-cancer therapy. Pubmed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar were screened for original and review papers published in the last ten years. The antigen association with the cationic nanoparticles either by electrostatic interactions or complementary coiled coil peptide pair strategy were found as the most promising strategies. The work also highlights the potential of this therapeutic platform for enhancing the T-cell immune response against cancer through mRNA-containing formulations for different routes of administration, providing a detailed physicochemical characterization of the reported nanosystems.