1. Academic Validation
  2. Spleen-targeted neoantigen DNA vaccine for personalized immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma

Spleen-targeted neoantigen DNA vaccine for personalized immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma

  • EMBO Mol Med. 2023 Aug 8;e16836. doi: 10.15252/emmm.202216836.
Ming Wu # 1 2 3 Zijin Luo # 1 Zhixiong Cai # 1 2 3 Qianqian Mao 1 Zhenli Li 1 4 Hao Li 1 3 Cao Zhang 1 3 Yuting Zhang 1 3 Aoxue Zhong 1 3 Liming Wu 1 4 Xiaolong Liu 1 2 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 The United Innovation of Mengchao Hepatobiliary Technology Key Laboratory of Fujian Province, Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.
  • 2 The Liver Center of Fujian Province, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China.
  • 3 Mengchao Med-X Center, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China.
  • 4 Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Disease, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Neoantigens are emerging as attractive targets to develop personalized Cancer vaccines, but their immunization efficacy is severely hampered by their restricted accessibility to lymphoid tissues where immune responses are initiated. Leveraging the capability of red blood cells (RBCs) to capture and present pathogens in peripheral blood to the antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in spleen, we developed a RBC-driven spleen targeting strategy to deliver DNA vaccine encoding hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) neoantigen. The DNA vaccine-encapsulating polymeric nanoparticles that were intentionally hitchhiked on the preisolated RBCs could preferentially accumulate in the spleen to promote the neoantigen expression by APCs, resulting in the burst of neoantigen-specific T-cell immunity to prevent tumorigenesis in a personalized manner, and slow down tumor growth in the established aggressively growing HCC. Remarkably, when combined with anti-PD-1, the vaccine achieved complete tumor regression and generated a robust systemic immune response with long-term tumor-specific immunological memory, which thoroughly prevented tumor recurrence and spontaneous lung metastasis. This study offers a prospective strategy to develop personalized neoantigen vaccines for augmenting Cancer Immunotherapy efficiency in immune "cold" HCC.

Keywords

RBC hitchhiking; hepatocellular carcinoma; neoantigen DNA vaccine; personalized immunotherapy; spleen targeting.

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