Nanodelivery of STING agonists against cancer and infectious diseases

Summary

This review evaluates nanodelivery as a way to make agonists of the stimulator of interferon genes pathway more usable in vaccines and immunotherapy. STING senses cytosolic DNA through an endogenous endoplasmic-reticulum protein and initiates signaling that culminates in strong type I interferon responses. Although natural and synthetic agonists can exploit this biology, their poor bioavailability, instability, and difficulty crossing the plasma membrane often restrict administration to local sites. The article synthesizes how nanocarriers, through improved pharmacokinetics and formulation versatility, may protect these agents, enable delivery, and widen their therapeutic reach. It organizes recent STING-inducing nanovaccine work across anticancer, antiviral, and antibacterial applications rather than presenting a new experimental dataset. The main conclusion is that nanoscale formulation addresses several linked delivery barriers that otherwise constrain a potent innate immune target. The significance is both practical and conceptual: the same signaling pathway and adaptable carrier logic could support vaccines or immunotherapies across distinct disease classes. Because this is a review abstract, it establishes the scope and rationale of the field but does not provide comparative clinical effectiveness or determine which carrier design is best.