Cytomembrane nanovaccines show therapeutic effects by mimicking tumor cells and antigen presenting cells

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 3199 - 12
• Main Authors: Liu, Wen-Long, Zou, Mei-Zhen, Liu, Tao, Zeng, Jin-Yue, Li, Xue, Yu, Wu-Yang, Li, Chu-Xin, Ye, Jing-Jie, Song, Wen, Feng, Jun, Zhang, Xian-Zheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.07.2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 13/1; 13/31; 13/51; 14/1; 14/19; 14/28; 14/35; 59/5; 631/67; 639/925; 64/60; 82/80; Animals; Antigen Presentation - immunology; Antigen-presenting cells; Antigens; Antigens, Neoplasm - immunology; Cancer; Cancer vaccines; Cancer Vaccines - immunology; Cell Fusion; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Membrane - immunology; Dendritic cells; Dendritic Cells - immunology; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Immunology; Immunotherapy; Lymphocyte Activation; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental - immunology; Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental - prevention & control; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mimicry; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - therapeutic use; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Transcriptome; Transplantation, Heterologous; Tumor cells; Tumors; Vaccines
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11157-1

Most cancer vaccines are unsuccessful in eliciting clinically relevant effects. Without using exogenous antigens and adoptive cells, we show a concept of utilizing biologically reprogrammed cytomembranes of the fused cells (FCs) derived from dendritic cells (DCs) and cancer cells as tumor vaccines. The fusion of immunologically interrelated two types of cells results in strong expression of the whole tumor antigen complexes and the immunological co-stimulatory molecules on cytomembranes (FMs), allowing the nanoparticle-supported FM (NP@FM) to function like antigen presenting cells (APCs) for T cell immunoactivation. Moreover, tumor-antigen bearing NP@FM can be bio-recognized by DCs to induce DC-mediated T cell immunoactivation. The combination of these two immunoactivation pathways offers powerful antitumor immunoresponse. Through mimicking both APCs and cancer cells, this cytomembrane vaccine strategy can develop various vaccines toward multiple tumor types and provide chances for accommodating diverse functions originating from the supporters. Cancer vaccines often fail to generate clinically relevant effects. Here, the authors generate a nanosized cytomembrane vaccine based on fusion between dendritic cells and cancer cells, and show them to activate anti-tumor immune responses via their antigen presenting and T-cell activating functions.