Frontiers in Immunology (May 2020)

Lipo-Based Vaccines as an Approach to Target Dendritic Cells for Induction of T- and iNKT Cell Responses

  • Dorian A. Stolk,
  • Aram de Haas,
  • Jana Vree,
  • Jana Vree,
  • Sanne Duinkerken,
  • Joyce Lübbers,
  • Rieneke van de Ven,
  • Rieneke van de Ven,
  • Martino Ambrosini,
  • Hakan Kalay,
  • Sven Bruijns,
  • Hans J. van der Vliet,
  • Hans J. van der Vliet,
  • Tanja D. de Gruijl,
  • Yvette van Kooyk

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.00990
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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In this study we developed a liposome-based vaccine containing palmitoylated synthetic long peptides (SLP) and alpha galactosylceramide (αGC) to specifically target dendritic cells (DC) for activation of both innate (invariant natural killer T-cells [iNKT]) and adaptive (CD8+ T-cells) players of the immune system. Combination of model tumor specific antigens (gp100/MART-1) formulated as a SLP and αGC in one liposome results in strong activation of CD8+ and iNKT, as measured by IFNγ secretion. Moreover, addition of lipo-Lewis Y (LeY) to the liposomes for C-type lectin targeting increased not only uptake by monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDC), dermal dendritic cells and Langerhans cells but also enhanced gp100-specific CD8+ T- and iNKT cell activation by human skin-emigrated antigen presenting cells in an ex vivo explant model. Loading of moDC with liposomes containing LeY also showed priming of MART-126−35L specific CD8+ T-cells. In conclusion, chemically linking a lipid tail to a glycan-based targeting moiety and SLP combined with αGC in one liposome allows for easy generation of vaccine formulations that target multiple skin DC subsets and induce tumor antigen specific CD8+ T- and iNKT cells. These liposomes present a new vaccination strategy against tumors.

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