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Universal immunotherapeutic strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma with exosome vaccines that engage adaptive and innate immune responses
Abstract
Background: Personalized immunotherapy utilizing cancer vaccines tailored to the tumors of individual patients holds promise for tumors with high genetic heterogeneity, potentially enabling eradication of the tumor in its entirety. Methods: Here, we demonstrate a general strategy for biological nanovaccines that trigger tailored tumor-specific immune responses for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Dendritic cell (DC)-derived exosomes (DEX) are painted with a HCC-targeting peptide (P47-P), an α-fetoprotein epitope (AFP212-A2) and a functional domain of high mobility group nucleosome-binding protein 1 (N1ND-N), an immunoadjuvant for DC recruitment and activation, via an exosomal anchor peptide to form a “trigger” DEX vaccine (DEX P&A2&N ). Results: DEX P&A2&N specifically promoted recruitment, accumulation and activation of DCs in mice with orthotopic HCC tumor, resulting in enhanced cross-presentation of tumor neoantigens and de novo T cell response. DEX P&A2&N elicited significant tumor retardation and tumor-specific immune responses in HCC mice with large tumor burdens. Importantly, tumor eradication was achieved in orthotopic HCC mice when antigenic AFP peptide was replaced with the full-length AFP (A) to form DEX P&A&N . Supplementation of Fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 ligand greatly augmented the antitumor immunity of DEX P&A&N by increasing immunological memory against tumor re-challenge in orthotopic HCC mice. Depletion of T cells, cross-presenting DCs and other innate immune cells abrogated the functionality of DEX P&A&N . Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the capacity of universal DEX vaccines to induce tumor-specific immune responses by triggering an immune response tailored to the tumors of each individual, thus presenting a generalizable approach for personalized immunotherapy of HCC, by extension of other tumors, without the need to identify tumor antigens.
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“For instance, the plentiful AFP in exosomes derived from HCC cells cultured in vitro can enhance antigen presentation capability of DCs, activate CD8+ T cell growth, modulate cytokine secretion (by decreasing IL-10 and TGF-β while elevating IFN-γ and IL-2), and promote immune-triggered apoptosis [128].”
From Emerging role of exosomes in cancer therapy: progress and challenges (2025) · cites this paper as [128]
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BackgroundAnchor peptide captures, targets, and loads exosomes of diverse origins for diagnostics and therapy
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Therapeutic cancer vaccines: Advancements, challenges, and prospects
Fan, T., Zhang, M., Yang, J., Zhu, Z., Cao, W., & Dong, C. (2023) · Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy · doi:10.1038/s41392-023-01674-3 · Cited by 597
Emerging role of exosomes in cancer therapy: progress and challenges
Li, J., Wang, J., & Chen, Z. (2025) · Molecular Cancer · doi:10.1186/s12943-024-02215-4 · Cited by 297
Metadata
- Authors
- Zuo, B., Zhang, Y., Zhao, K., Wu, L., Qi, H., Yang, R., Gao, X., Geng, M., Wu, Y., Jing, R., Zhou, Q., Seow, Y., & Yin, H.
- Venue
- Journal of Hematology & Oncology
- Published
- 2022-04-29
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1756-8722
- PMC
- PMC9052531
- Cited by
- 155
- References
- 6
- Language
- en
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