Engineered Living Bacteriophage-Enabled Self-Adjuvanting Hydrogel for Remodeling Tumor Microenvironment and Cancer Therapy

Due to the complexity and heterogeneity in the tumor microenvironment, the efficacy of breast cancer treatment has been significantly impeded. Here, we established a living system using an engineered M13 bacteriophage through chemical cross-linking and biomineralization to remodel the tumor microenvironment. Chemically cross-linking of the engineered bacteriophage gel (M13 Gel) could in situ synthesize photothermal palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) on the pVIII capsid protein to obtain M13@Pd Gel. In addition, NLG919 was further loaded into a gel to form (M13@Pd/NLG gel) for down-regulating the expression of tryptophan metabolic enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1). Both in vitro and in vivo studies showed that the M13 bacteriophage served not only as a cargo-loaded device but also as a self-immune adjuvant, which induced the immunogenic death of tumor cells effectively and down-regulated IDO1 expression. Such a bioactive gel system constructed by natural living materials could reverse immunosuppression and significantly improve the anti-breast cancer response.