Loading
Life sciences · Journal article
Frontiers in Immunology · September 24, 2026
No summary has been generated for this record yet. What follows is drawn from its source metadata only.
Journal article.
No findings were extractable from the material analysed.
Safety was not reported in the material analysed. Check the source before drawing any conclusion about harm.
The source did not state who this applies to in practice.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
This record has not been graded across any dimension yet. Treat the label above as provisional and read the source.
What is missing. This record has no bottom line, key findings, reported figures, evidence dimensions. That is a gap in the analysis, not a judgement about the study.
Numerous therapeutic agents have been demonstrated to initiate antitumor immune responses, thereby driving significant progress in cancer immunotherapy. However, clinical translation is severely limited by persistent challenges, including systemic toxicity, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), and low nanoparticle delivery efficiency. Tumor-activated prodrug nanoparticles (PDNPs) integrate prodrug chemistry with nanoscale delivery, enabling localized drug activation in response to tumor microenvironmental cues or exogenous stimuli. Therapeutic specificity is improved and off-target toxicity is mitigated by this strategy, providing a promising platform for safe and effective drug delivery. Consequently, these systems have attracted extensive research attention. In this review, the design strategies, release mechanisms, and immunotherapeutic applications of TME-responsive and exogenous stimulus-responsive PDNPs are systematically detailed, together with active-targeting and hybrid strategies that further improve tumor-selective delivery and activation. Beyond serving as delivery vehicles for immunomodulators, these PDNPs are utilized in synergy with chemotherapy, photothermal/photodynamic therapy, and sonodynamic therapy to trigger immunogenic cell death. Furthermore, dendritic cell maturation and T-cell infiltration are promoted, thereby remodeling the immune microenvironment, particularly when administered in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Finally, the key challenges and considerations for the clinical translation of tumor-activated PDNPs are highlighted, with the aim of guiding further research progress.