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  2. Reversing Immune Evasion using a DNA Nano-orchestrator for Pancreatic Cancer Immunotherapy

Reversing Immune Evasion using a DNA Nano-orchestrator for Pancreatic Cancer Immunotherapy

  • Acta Biomater. 2023 May 5;S1742-7061(23)00248-9. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2023.05.001.
Xiaotian Zhao 1 Yuanmin Dong 1 Jing Zhang 1 Chen Chen 1 Lin Gao 1 Chongdeng Shi 1 Zhipeng Fu 1 Maosen Han 1 Chunwei Tang 1 Peng Sun 2 Zhenmei Yang 1 Cai Zhang 3 Kun Zhao 4 Xinyi Jiang 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 NMPA Key Laboratory for Technology Research and Evaluation of Drug Products and Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 Cultural West Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, 250012, China.
  • 2 College of Pharmacy, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 4655 University Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, 250355, China.
  • 3 NMPA Key Laboratory for Technology Research and Evaluation of Drug Products and Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 Cultural West Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, 250012, China. Electronic address: caizhangsd@sdu.edu.cn.
  • 4 NMPA Key Laboratory for Technology Research and Evaluation of Drug Products and Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 Cultural West Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, 250012, China. Electronic address: kzhao2013@sdu.edu.cn.
  • 5 NMPA Key Laboratory for Technology Research and Evaluation of Drug Products and Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 Cultural West Road, Jinan, Shandong Province, 250012, China. Electronic address: xinyijiang@sdu.edu.cn.
Abstract

Immune evasion caused by the paucity of MHC I is a prominent characteristic of pancreatic carcinoma (PC), which is thought to underlie dysfunctional even absent adaptive T cell immunity and is responsible for ineffective immunotherapy. Here, we report a ROS-responsive DNA nano-orchestrator to cascade reverse MHC I-associated immune evasion and boost anti-tumor T cell stimulation, stimulating the activation of tumoricidal immunity against PC. Chloroquine phosphate (CQP) as an Autophagy Inhibitor was first encapsulated with ferritin, and via DNA modular self-assembly technology, the generated ferritin nanocores (FNC) were then caged into ROS-responsive CpG-DNA nanoframe. After systemic injection, the FNC-laden DNA nanoframe (FNC@NF) was passively enriched in tumor tissues in which the DNA nanoframe was cleaved upon the ROS stimulation. Oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) with CpG motifs was detached and functioned as a TLR9 Agonist. The liberated FNC was then endocytosed in an actively targeted manner by binding to Transferrin Receptor 1. In the lysosome, CQP was burst released from FNC due to acid-triggering. Through CQP-mediated Autophagy abrogation, MHC-I molecules were preserved. We demonstrated that cascade inhibiting Autophagy and boosting TLR9 stimulation via our proposed DNA-based hybrid nanosystem restored MHC I at the tumor cell surface and reshaped the antigen presentation of DCs, and ultimately reversed immune evasion and synergistically reinforced the activation of cytotoxic T cells against PC cells. In sum, our work provides an alternative strategy for cascade reversing immune evasion and boosting anti-tumor T cell stimulation and holds great potential for pancreatic Cancer Immunotherapy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: A DNA nano-orchestrator was created by sequentially assembling chloroquine phosphate-laden ferritin nanocores with ROS-responsive CpG-DNA nanoframe. Through cascade inhibiting Autophagy and boosting TLR9 stimulation, the nano-orchestrator efficiently reversed MHC I-associated immune evasion and augmented anti-tumor T cell stimulation, which ultimately activated tumoricidal immunity against pancreatic carcinoma.

Keywords

Autophagy; CpG-DNA nanocage; Immune evasion; Pancreatic cancer; TLR9.

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