TLR-3 stimulation improves anti-tumor immunity elicited by dendritic cell exosome-based vaccines in a murine model of melanoma

Sci Rep. 2015 Dec 3:5:17622. doi: 10.1038/srep17622.

Abstract

Dendritic cell (DC)-derived exosomes (Dexo) contain the machinery necessary to activate potent antigen-specific immune responses. As promising cell-free immunogens, Dexo have been tested in previous clinical trials for cancer vaccine immunotherapy, yet resulted in limited therapeutic benefit. Here, we explore a novel Dexo vaccine formulation composed of Dexo purified from DCs loaded with antigens and matured with either the TLR-3 ligand poly(I:C), the TLR-4 ligand LPS or the TLR-9 ligand CpG-B. When poly(I:C) was used to produce exosomes together with ovalbumin (OVA), the resulting Dexo vaccine strongly stimulated OVA-specific CD8(+) and CD4(+) T cells to proliferate and acquire effector functions. When a B16F10 melanoma cell lysate was used to load DCs with tumor antigens during exosome production together with poly(I:C), we obtained a Dexo vaccine capable of inducing robust activation of melanoma-specific CD8(+) T cells and the recruitment of cytotoxic CD8(+) T cells, NK and NK-T cells to the tumor site, resulting in significantly reduced tumor growth and enhanced survival as compared to a Dexo vaccine formulation similar to the one previously tested on human patients. Our results indicate that poly(I:C) is a particularly favorable TLR agonist for DC maturation during antigen loading and exosome production for cancer immunotherapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • Cancer Vaccines / immunology*
  • Cancer Vaccines / pharmacology
  • Dendritic Cells / drug effects
  • Dendritic Cells / immunology*
  • Exosomes / immunology
  • Female
  • Immunotherapy / methods
  • Killer Cells, Natural / immunology
  • Lipopolysaccharides / pharmacology
  • Melanoma, Experimental / immunology*
  • Melanoma, Experimental / therapy
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Ovalbumin / immunology
  • Ovalbumin / pharmacology
  • Toll-Like Receptor 3 / immunology*

Substances

  • Cancer Vaccines
  • Lipopolysaccharides
  • TLR3 protein, mouse
  • Toll-Like Receptor 3
  • Ovalbumin