Synthetic polymers have emerged as crucial materials for drug, gene, and vaccine delivery, offering versatile platforms for enhancing therapeutic efficacy and safety. This review provides a comprehensive overview of various synthetic polymers, including polyesters, polycarbonates, polyanhydrides, polypeptides, and polyethers, emphasizing their preparation methods and functional properties. We discuss the application of these polymers for the controlled delivery of small molecules, peptides, and proteins, highlighting their therapeutic benefits and action mechanisms. Furthermore, we explore the advances in gene delivery technologies, including plasmid DNA, oligonucleotides, and mRNA-based approaches. The review also addresses the role of synthetic polymers in vaccine delivery, focusing on protein and mRNA vaccines. By synthesizing current knowledge, we aim to outline the significant contributions of synthetic polymers to modern therapeutics and identify future directions for research in the biomedical fields.

Oral cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the head and neck, not only affects the appearance, but also affects eating and even endangers life. The clinical treatments of oral cancer mainly include surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, unsatisfactory therapeutic effect and toxic side effects are still the main problems in clinical treatment. Tumor microenvironment (TME) is not only closely related to the occurrence, growth, and metastasis of tumor but also works in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of tumor and prognosis. Future studies should continue to investigate the relationship of TME and oral cancer therapy. This purpose of this review was to analyze the characteristics of oral cancer microenvironment, summarize the traditional oral cancer therapy and immunotherapy strategies, and finally prospect the development prospects of oral cancer immunotherapy. Immunotherapy targeting tumor microenvironment is expected to provide a new strategy for clinical treatment of oral cancer.

A previously unexplored immune cocktail therapy enables vigorous and multiple boosting of the cancer-immunity cycle.

In situ injectable hydrogels have shown tremendous potential application in the biomedical field due to their significant drug accumulation at lesion sites, sustained release and markedly reduced systemic side effects. Specifically, peptide-based hydrogels, with unique biodegradation, biocompatibility, and bioactivity, are attractive molecular skeletons. In addition, peptides play a prominent role in normal metabolism, mimicking the natural tissue microenvironment and responding to stimuli in the lesion environment. Their advantages endow peptide-based hydrogels with great potential for application as biomedical materials. In this review, the fabrication and production of peptide-based hydrogels are presented. Several promising candidates, which are smart and environment-sensitive, are briefly reviewed. Then, the recent developments of these hydrogels for biomedical applications in tissue engineering, as drug/gene vehicles, and anti-bacterial agents are discussed. Finally, the development of peptide-based injectable hydrogels for biomedical applications in the future is surveyed.