Aptamer/Peptide‐Functionalized Genome‐Editing System for Effective Immune Restoration through Reversal of PD‐L1‐Mediated Cancer Immunosuppression

Abstract Effective reversal of tumor immunosuppression is of critical importance in cancer therapy. A multifunctional delivery vector that can effectively deliver CRISPR‐Cas9 plasmid for β‐catenin knockout to reverse tumor immunosuppression is constructed. The multi‐functionalized delivery vector is decorated with aptamer‐conjugated hyaluronic acid and peptide‐conjugated hyaluronic acid to combine the tumor cell/nuclear targeting function of AS1411 with the cell penetrating/nuclear translocation function of TAT‐NLS. Due to the significantly enhanced plasmid enrichment in malignant cell nuclei, the genome editing system can induce effective β‐catenin knockout and suppress Wnt/β‐catenin pathway, resulting in notably downregulated proteins involved in tumor progression and immunosuppression. Programmed death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1) downregulation in edited tumor cells not only releases the PD‐1/PD‐L1 brake to improve the cancer killing capability of CD8 + T cells, but also enhances antitumor immune responses of immune cells. This provides a facile strategy to reverse tumor immunosuppression and to restore immunosurveillance and activate anti‐tumor immunity.