Fig. 1

Schematic diagram of a chemoimmunotherapy hydrogel to play an anti-tumor role by reprogramming the tumor microenvironment. 1) In vitro, CaCl₂ (1.8 × 10^–3 mol L⁻¹) is added to sodium alginate solution (ALG, 20 mg mL⁻¹) mixed with nanoparticle albumin-bound-paclitaxel (Nab-PTX, 1 mg mL⁻¹) and an immunostimulating agent R837 (0.5 mg mL^–1), to form our chemoimmunotherapy hydrogel at room temperature. 2) ALG mixed with Nab-PTX and R837, will be cross-linked with the cations present in vivo to form hydrogel near the tumor. Then, some dying tumor cells release antigens due to immunogenic cell death induced by Nab-PTX. Immature DCs are activated by immunogenic tumor antigens accompanied by R837, and migrate to lymph nodes to induce sufficient effector memory T cells (T_EM), eventually increasing the proportion of T_EM in tumor microenvironment