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Immune cells can actively regulate tumors or inflammatory sites and have good biocompatibility and safety. Currently, they are one of the most promising candidates for drug delivery systems. Moreover, immune cells can significantly extend the circulation time of nanoparticles and have broad-spectrum tumor-targeting properties. This article first introduces the immune cell types most commonly used in recent years, analyzes their advantages and disadvantages, and elucidates their application in anti-tumor therapy. Next, the various ways of loading nanoparticles on immune cells that have been used in recent years are summarized and simply divided into two categories: backpacks and Trojan horses. Finally, the two “mountains” that stand in front of us when using immune cells as cell carriers, off-target problems and effective release strategies, are discussed.

Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is a severe complication of infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that cause serious damage to public health. Currently, no effective therapeutic strategy exists for CRS treatment in clinic, and supportive therapy is still the main method. Here, we show the potential of macrophage membrane-biomimetic nanoparticles for CRS treatment. By fusing macrophage membrane on the surface of the PLGA skeleton, we constructed biomimetic nanoparticles that inherited the membrane receptors from the "parental" macrophages, enabling the neutralization of CRS-related cytokines. We compared three types of macrophage membranes to screen out more effective biomimetic nanoparticles for CRS treatment. Our results show that biomimetic nanoparticles containing M0 macrophage membrane can decrease the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines involved in CRS to the greatest extent. In a mouse model of RNA virus analog-induced CRS, the macrophage membrane-biomimetic nanoparticles manifested significant therapeutic efficacy by reducing cytokine levels and alleviating organ damage. Funding Information: This work was supported by Scientific Research Project of Tongji University (22120200021), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82073385 and 81803078), Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (20DZ2255200 and 21140901900). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: All animal studies were approved under the guidelines of Tongji University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

Androgen castration therapy is an effective treatment method for prostate cancer patients who cannot be completely cured by surgery. However, drug resistance often leads to treatment failure and poor prognosis. For castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), some new treatment methods have been gradually put into clinical validation or use. Considering the side effects of traditional treatment, gene therapy has been applied in recent studies to combat prostate cancer (PCa). A 19-nt RNA aptamer, termed as EpDT3, is endocytosed when bound to epithelial cell adhesion molecule EpCAM-overexpressing cells, including various types of prostate cancer cells. Therefore, poly (amidoamine) dendrimer (PAMAM) conjugated with EpDT3 on the surface was developed for gene delivery targeting the CRPC. Moreover, the PAMAM-PEG-EpDT3 vehicles were accumulated in CRPC cells. The CRPC-inhibitory effect of PAMAM modified with EpDT3 was significantly higher than that of the unmodified construct when loading the plasmid that encodes long noncoding (lnc) RNA MEG3 (pMEG3). In summary, the above results suggested that PAMAM-PEG-EpDT3/pMEG3 nanoparticles (NPs) have great potential for enhancing CRPC gene therapy.