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Enhancing DC cancer vaccine by allogeneic MHC class II expression and Treg depletion
Noriko Seishima, William Becker, Purevdorj B. Olkhanud, Hoyoung M. Maeng, Miguel A. Lopez-Lago, William V. Williams, Jay A. Berzofsky
Noriko Seishima, William Becker, Purevdorj B. Olkhanud, Hoyoung M. Maeng, Miguel A. Lopez-Lago, William V. Williams, Jay A. Berzofsky
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Research Article Immunology Oncology

Enhancing DC cancer vaccine by allogeneic MHC class II expression and Treg depletion

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Abstract

We assessed the therapeutic efficacy of a semiallogeneic dendritic cell (DC) vaccine in comparison to a syngeneic one for suppression of B16-F10 and TC-1 tumors. Syngeneic bone marrow–derived DCs (BMDCs) were generated from C57BL/6J mice and semiallogeneic BMDCs with a mutation in either MHC class I or II were generated from B6.C-H2-Kbm1/ByJ or B6(C)-H2-Ab1bm12/KhEgJ mice, respectively. We demonstrated in vivo and in vitro that the MHC class II semiallogeneic BMDC vaccine had superior efficacy over the syngeneic and the MHC class I semiallogeneic BMDC vaccine, providing allogeneic CD4+ T cell help to enhance the antitumor CD8+ T cell response through allogeneic stimulation by the mutant MHC class II molecules. We discovered that this help was induced only at an early stage of tumor growth and at a later stage of tumor growth; combining our BMDC vaccine with Treg depletion enhanced tumor suppression. We demonstrated the improved efficacy of a semiallogeneic BMDC vaccine that kept tumor-peptide presentation intact on syngeneic MHC class I molecules so that mutant MHC class II could provide allogeneic help. This strategy should enable promising new DC-based cancer immunotherapies, offering an alternative to autologous DC vaccines by incorporating allogenicity as an adjuvant.

Authors

Noriko Seishima, William Becker, Purevdorj B. Olkhanud, Hoyoung M. Maeng, Miguel A. Lopez-Lago, William V. Williams, Jay A. Berzofsky

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Figure 6

Late Treg depletion enhances the efficacy of the E743–77-pulsed MHC class II semiallogeneic mature BMDC vaccination by maintaining intratumoral E7-specific CD8+ T cell antitumor activity and increasing circulating E7-specific CD8+ T cells in the blood.

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Late Treg depletion enhances the efficacy of the E743–77-pulsed MHC clas...
(A) Foxp3-GFPDTR mice were injected s.c. with 1 × 105 TC-1 tumor cells, and mice were injected intradermally (i.d.) with E743–77-pulsed MHC class II semiallogeneic bm12 LPS-matured BMDC (mBMDC) vaccines (designated bm12 in the graphs) 5 times starting 8 days after tumor inoculation at 5-day intervals. Tregs were depleted by i.p. injection of diphtheria toxin (DT) that started 2 days before the TC-1 inoculation for early depletion (EDT) or 2 days after the second dose of the BMDC vaccinations for late depletion (LDT) and continued every 2–3 days until end of the study. (A) Experimental scheme, (B) average tumor growth of indicated groups, and (C) individual tumor growth of each tumor-bearing mouse. (D–G) Mice were sacrificed 23 days after TC-1 inoculation and subjected to flow cytometric analysis of CD8+ and E7/H2Db tetramer+ cells and Foxp3+ and CD4+ T cells in tumors, spleen, and blood. (D and F) Representative flow cytometry contour plots for indicated cells. (E and G) Individual mouse values of CD8+ and E7/H2Db tetramer+ cells (E) and Foxp3+ Tregs (G). Numbers in the plots indicate the percentage of gated cells. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM and represent 2 independent experiments, n = 5–6 per group (B–G). Statistical analysis was performed using 2-way ANOVA over the entirety of the study (B) and 1-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey’s multiple-comparison correction (E and G). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ****P < 0.0001.

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