Liposomal all-trans retinoic acid boosts anti-tumor immunity of radiotherapy via mitigating cancer stemness and remedying tumor microenvironment

Radiotherapy (RT) induces immunogenic cell death but also promotes immunosuppression, cancer stemness and immune evasion, thus compromising anti-tumor immune response and leading to cancer recurrence and metastasis. Here, we developed liposomal all-trans retinoic acid nanoparticles (LATRA) to simultaneously mitigate cancer stemness and remedy suppressive tumor microenvironment, which on one hand decreases tumorigenicity and sensitizes tumors to RT and on the other hand stimulates dendritic cell maturation and reprograms macrophages toward a pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype. In murine colorectal tumor model, RT combined with LATRA essentially reduces tumor burden, prevents recurrence and induces a durable immune response with memory effects. Notably, LATRA effectively eradicates residual tumor cells in post-surgery 4 T1 breast tumor model, avoiding tumor relapse and lung metastasis. Liposomal all-trans retinoic acid offers a new and promising strategy to empower radiotherapy-induced anti-tumor immunity.