Abstract
The prognosis of liver cancer remains poor, but recent advances in nanotechnology offer promising possibilities for cancer treatment. Novel adjuvant, amphiphilic nanoparticles (NPs) composed of l-phenylalanine (Phe)-conjugated poly(γ-glutamic acid) (γ-PGA-Phe NPs) having excellent capacity for carrying peptides, were found to have the potential for use as a peptide vaccine against tumor models overexpressing artificial antigens, such as ovalbumin (OVA). However, the anti-tumor potential of γ-PGA-Phe NPs vaccines using much less immunogenic tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-derived peptide needs to be clarified. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of immunization with EphA2, recently identified TAA, derived peptide-immobilized γ-PGA-Phe NPs (Eph-NPs) against mouse liver tumor of MC38 cells (EphA2-positive colon cancer cells). Immunization of normal mice with Eph-NPs resulted in generation of EphA2-specific type-1 CD8+ T cells. Immunization with Eph-NPs tended to provide a degree of anti-MC38 liver tumor protection more than that observed for immunization with the mixture of EphA2-derived peptide and complete Freund’s adjuvant (Eph + CFA). Neither Eph-NPs nor Eph + CFA vaccines inhibited tumor growth of BL6, EphA2-negative melanoma cells. Splenocytes isolated from MC38-bearing mice treated with Eph-NPs showed strong and specific cytotoxic activity against MC38 cells. Immunization with Eph + CFA induced liver damage as evidenced by elevation of serum alanine aminotransferase, while Eph-NPs vaccination did not exhibit any toxic damage to the liver. These results demonstrated that immunization with Eph-NPs displayed anti-tumor effects against liver tumor by generating acquired immunity equivalent to the toxic adjuvant CFA, suggesting that safe γ-PGA-Phe NPs could be applied clinically for the vaccine treatment of liver cancer.
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Abbreviations
- IFA:
-
Incomplete Freund’s adjuvant
- NPs:
-
Nanoparticles
- γ-PGA:
-
Poly(γ-glutamic acid)
- Phe:
-
l-Phenylalanine
- CFA:
-
Complete Freund’s adjuvant
- PBS:
-
Phosphate buffered saline
- i.p.:
-
Intraperitoneal
- ALT:
-
Alanine aminotransferase
- DCs:
-
Dendritic cells
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) from Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
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S. Yamaguchi and T. Tatsumi contributed equally to this work.
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Yamaguchi, S., Tatsumi, T., Takehara, T. et al. EphA2-derived peptide vaccine with amphiphilic poly(γ-glutamic acid) nanoparticles elicits an anti-tumor effect against mouse liver tumor. Cancer Immunol Immunother 59, 759–767 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-009-0796-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-009-0796-2