International Journal of Nanomedicine (Jan 2021)

The Adjuvant of α-Galactosylceramide Presented by Gold Nanoparticles Enhances Antitumor Immune Responses of MUC1 Antigen-Based Tumor Vaccines

  • Liu Y,
  • Wang Z,
  • Yu F,
  • Li M,
  • Zhu H,
  • Wang K,
  • Meng M,
  • Zhao W

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 16
pp. 403 – 420

Abstract

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Yonghui Liu,1 Zhaoyu Wang,1 Fan Yu,2 Mingjing Li,1 Haomiao Zhu,1 Kun Wang,1 Meng Meng,1 Wei Zhao1 1State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy and KLMDASR of Tianjin, Nankai University, Tianjin 300353, People’s Republic of China; 2College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Meng Meng; Wei ZhaoState Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy and KLMDASR of Tianjin, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Haihe Education Park, Tianjin 300353, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 22-23507760Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Therapeutic tumor vaccines are one of the most promising strategies and have attracted great attention in cancer treatment. However, most of them have shown unsatisfactory immunogenicity, there are still few available vaccines for clinical use. Therefore, there is an urgent demand to develop novel strategies to improve the immune efficacy of antitumor vaccines.Purpose: This study aimed to develop novel adjuvants and carriers to enhance the immune effect of MUC1 glycopeptide antigen-based antitumor vaccines.Methods: An antitumor vaccine was developed, in which MUC1 glycopeptide was used as tumor-associated antigen, α-GalCer served as an immune adjuvant and AuNPs was a multivalent carrier.Results: Immunological evaluation results indicated that the constructed vaccines enabled a significant antibody response. FACS analysis and immunofluorescence assay showed that the induced antisera exhibited a specific binding with MUC1 positive MCF-7 cells. Moreover, the induced antibody can mediate CDC to kill MCF-7 cells. Besides stimulating B cells to produce MUC1-specific antibodies, the prepared vaccines also induced MUC1-specific CTLs in vitro. Furthermore, the vaccines significantly delayed tumor development in tumor-bearing mice model.Conclusion: These results showed that the construction of vaccines by presenting α-GalCer adjuvant and an antigen on gold nanoparticles offers a potential strategy to improve the antitumor response in cancer immunotherapy.Keywords: MUC1 glycopeptide, α-galactosylceramide, gold nanoparticle, antitumor vaccine

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