Zhongsong Zhang,1 Rong Wang,1 Long Chen2 

1School of Clinical Medicine, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, 610550, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Basic Medical Sciences, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, 610550, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Long Chen, Email chenlong@cmc.edu.cn

Abstract: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a heterogeneous population of non-malignant cells that play a crucial role in the tumor microenvironment, increasingly recognized as key contributors to cancer progression, metastasis, and treatment resistance. So, targeting CAFs has always been considered an important part of cancer immunotherapy. However, targeting CAFs to improve the efficacy of tumor therapy is currently a major challenge. Nanomaterials show their unique advantages in the whole process. At present, nanomaterials have achieved significant accomplishments in medical applications, particularly in the field of cancer-targeted therapy, showing enormous potential. It has been confirmed that nanomaterials can not only directly target CAFs, but also interact with the tumor microenvironment (TME) and immune cells to affect tumorigenesis. As for the cancer treatment, nanomaterials could enhance the therapeutic effect in many ways. Therefore, in this review, we first summarized the current understanding of the complex interactions between CAFs and TME, immune cells, and tumor cells. Next, we discussed common nanomaterials in modern medicine and their respective impacts on the TME, CAFs, and interactions with tumors. Finally, we focus on the application of nano drug delivery system targeting CAFs in cancer therapy.

Keywords: cancer-associated fibroblasts, drug delivery, nanomedicine, tumor microenvironment, cancer immunotherapy