Ultrasound-driven nanotechnologies to overcome cancer immunotherapy resistance: From antigen presentation to metabolic rewiring

Although cancer immunotherapy has achieved remarkable progress, its clinical benefits are still limited to a small subset of patients due to diverse mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance. Defective tumor antigen release and presentation, poor immune-cell trafficking across abnormal vasculature and dense extracellular matrix (ECM), immunosuppressive cellular and cytokine networks, and hostile metabolic conditions collectively contribute to this resistance. Overcoming these multilayered barriers necessitates therapeutic modalities that combine spatial precision, temporal controllability, and deep tissue accessibility, attributes uniquely offered by ultrasound, a clinically established and non-invasive technology with proven capacity for deep tissue penetration. When combined with nanotechnology, ultrasound can harness its unique bioeffects to modulate the tumor microenvironment (TME) and overcome resistance to cancer immunotherapy. In this review, we focus on ultrasound-enabled nanotechnologies from the perspective of circumventing cancer immunotherapy resistance. We first summarize the principal mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance and the bioeffects of ultrasound that are relevant to immune modulation. We then highlight how ultrasound-integrated nanomaterials are rationally designed to (i) promote tumor antigen release and improve both self- and cross-presentation, (ii) traverse or remodel physical barriers such as abnormal tumor vasculature, the blood-brain barrier, and a stiff extracellular matrix, (iii) reprogram immunosuppressive cellular and cytokine networks, and (iv) rewire immunometabolic pathways, including those driven by lactate accumulation, adenosine signaling, and the tryptophan-kynurenine axis. Finally, we discuss the safety considerations and translational challenges for incorporating ultrasound-assisted nanotherapeutics into clinical immunotherapy regimens, providing a mechanism-based roadmap for systematically dismantling cancer immunotherapy resistance.