Development of Membrane-Bound GM-CSF and IL-18 as an Effective Tumor Vaccine: e0133470

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 7
• Main Authors: Huang, Chien-Chiao, Kuo, Kung-Kai, Cheng, Ta-Chun, Chuang, Chih-Hung, Kao, Chien-Han, Hsieh, Yuan-Chin, Cheng, Kuang-Hung, Wang, Jaw-Yuan, Cheng, Chiu-Min, Chen, Chien-Shu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.07.2015
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133470

The development of effective adjuvant is the key factor to boost the immunogenicity of tumor cells as a tumor vaccine. In this study, we expressed membrane-bound granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) as adjuvants in tumor cells to stimulate immune response. B7 transmembrane domain fused GM-CSF and IL-18 was successfully expressed in the cell membrane and stimulated mouse splenocyte proliferation. Co-expression of GM-CSF and IL-18 reduced tumorigenesis (P<0.05) and enhanced tumor protective efficacy (P<0.05) significantly in comparison with GM-CSF alone. These results indicated that the combination of GM-CSF andIL-18 will enhance the immunogenicity of a cell-based anti-tumor vaccine. This membrane-bound approach can be applied to other cytokines for the development of novel vaccine strategies.