Challenges and prospects of polymeric biomaterials in immune engineering: A review

Immune engineering is a vast and rapidly developing field with a strong focus on polymeric materials. The importance of these biomaterials in immune engineering revolves around their ability to provide bioactive molecules to the target site, which influences the immune system. Their functional performance depends on various structural and functional properties of the biomaterial, which are also influenced by the host immune microenvironment. This work focuses on the current state of the art, the attributes of polymer-based biomaterials, and their limitations in immune engineering applications. This review not only elaborates on the advantages of polymeric biomaterials in immune engineering but also critically analyses the potential of these biomaterials in this field. The current work begins with the identification of key characteristics of polymer-based biomaterials for immune engineering, then explores different aspects of various polymeric materials and their importance in immune engineering applications. One of the key advantages of polymeric materials is that they can be efficiently designed to deliver bioactive molecules that significantly influence the host immune system. On the other hand, a notable limitation of these materials involves the development of adverse immune responses that can often occur due to the incompatibility of polymeric biomaterials with the host immune system. Finally, the review delves into the future perspectives and potential of these materials in immune engineering based personalized medicine and/or engineering living material (ELM) specific applications.