Co-delivery of PLGA encapsulated invariant NKT cell agonist with antigenic protein induce strong T cell-mediated antitumor immune responses.

Antitumor immunity can be enhanced by the coordinated release and delivery of antigens and immune-stimulating agents to antigen-presenting cells via biodegradable vaccine carriers. So far, encapsulation of TLR ligands and tumor-associated antigens augmented cytotoxic T cell (CTLs) responses. Here, we compared the efficacy of the invariant NKT (iNKT) cell agonist α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) and TLR ligands (R848 and poly I:C) as an adjuvant for the full length ovalbumin (OVA) in PLGA nanoparticles. We observed that OVA+α-GalCer nanoparticles (NP) are superior over OVA+TLR-L NP in generating and stimulating antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes without the need for CD4+ T cell help. Not only a 4-fold higher induction of antigen-specific T cells was observed, but also a more profound IFN-γ secretion was obtained by the addition α-GalCer. Surprisingly, we observed that mixtures of OVA containing NP with α-GalCer were ineffective, demonstrating that co-encapsulation of both α-GalCer and antigen within the same nanoparticle is essential for the observed T cell responses. Moreover, a single immunization with OVA+α-GalCer NP provided substantial protection from tumor formation and even delayed the growth of already established tumors, which coincided with a prominent and enhanced antigen-specific CD8+ T cell infiltration. The provided evidence on the advantage of antigen and α-GalCer coencapsulation should be considered in the design of future nanoparticle vaccines for therapeutic purposes.

Type I IFN-mediated synergistic activation of mouse and human DC subsets by TLR agonists.

Novel approaches of dendritic cell (DC) based cancer immunotherapy aim at harnessing the unique attributes of different DC subsets. Classical monocyte-derived DC vaccines are currently being replaced by either applying primary DCs or specifically targeting antigens and adjuvants to these subsets in vivo. Appropriate DC activation in both strategies is essential for optimal effect. For this purpose TLR agonists are favorable adjuvant choices, with TLR7 triggering being essential for inducing strong Th1 responses. However, mouse CD8α(+) DCs, considered to be the major cross-presenting subset, lack TLR7 expression. Interestingly, this DC subset can respond to TLR7 ligand upon concurrent TLR3 triggering. Nevertheless, the mechanism underlying this synergy remains obscure. We now show that TLR3 ligation results in the production of IFN-α, which rapidly induces the expression of TLR7, resulting in synergistic activation. Moreover, we demonstrate that this mechanism conversely holds for plasmacytoid DCs that respond to TLR3 ligation when TLR7 pathway is mobilized. We further demonstrate that this mechanism of sharpening DC senses is also conserved in human BDCA1(+) DCs and plasmacytoid DCs. These findings have important implications for future clinical trials as it suggests that combinations of TLR ligands should be applied irrespective of initial TLR expression profiles on natural DC subsets for optimal stimulation.

Intra-adrenal murine TH-MYCN neuroblastoma tumors grow more aggressive and exhibit a distinct tumor microenvironment relative to their subcutaneous equivalents.

In around half of the patients with neuroblastoma (NBL), the primary tumor is located in one of the adrenal glands. We have previously reported on a transplantable TH-MYCN model of subcutaneous (SC) growing NBL in C57Bl/6 mice for immunological studies. In this report, we describe an orthotopic TH-MYCN transplantable model where the tumor cells were injected intra-adrenally (IA) by microsurgery. Strikingly, 9464D cells grew out much faster in IA tumors compared to the subcutis. Tumors were infiltrated by equal numbers of lymphocytes and myeloid cells. Within the myeloid cell population, however, tumor-infiltrating macrophages were more abundant in IA tumors compared to SC tumors and expressed lower levels of MHC class II, indicative of a more immunosuppressive phenotype. Using 9464D cells stably expressing firefly luciferase, enhanced IA tumor growth could be confirmed using bioluminescence. Collectively, these data show that the orthotopic IA localization of TH-MYCN cells impacts the NBL tumor microenvironment, resulting in a more stringent NBL model to study novel immunotherapeutic approaches for NBL.

Analysis of genes regulated by the transcription factor LUMAN identifies ApoA4 as a target gene in dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells of the immune system that play a crucial role in initiating immune responses and maintaining self tolerance. Better understanding of the molecular basis of DC immunobiology is required to improve DC-based immunotherapies. We previously described the interaction of transcription factor LUMAN (also known as CREB3 or LZIP) with the DC-specific transmembrane protein DC-STAMP in DCs. Target genes of LUMAN and its role in DCs are currently unknown. In this study we set out to identify genes regulated by LUMAN in DCs using microarray analysis. Expression of a constitutively active form of LUMAN in mouse DC cell line D2SC/1 identified Apolipoprotein A4 (ApoA4) as its target gene. Subsequent validation experiments, bioinformatics-based promoter analysis, and silencing studies confirmed that ApoA4 is a true target gene of LUMAN in bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs).

Targeted delivery of TLR ligands to human and mouse dendritic cells strongly enhances adjuvanticity.

Effective vaccines consist of 2 components: immunodominant antigens and effective adjuvants. Whereas it has been demonstrated that targeted delivery of antigens to dendritic cells (DCs) improves vaccine efficacy, we report here that co-targeting of TLR ligands (TLRLs) to DCs strongly enhances adjuvanticity and immunity. We encapsulated ligands for intracellular TLRs within biodegradable nanoparticles coated with Abs recognizing DC-specific receptors. Targeted delivery of TLRLs to human DCs enhanced the maturation and production of immune stimulatory cytokines and the Ag-specific activation of naive CD8(+) T cells. In vivo studies demonstrated that nanoparticles carrying Ag induced cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses at 100-fold lower adjuvant dose when TLRLs were co-encapsulated instead of administered in soluble form. Moreover, the efficacy of these targeted TLRLs reduced the serum cytokine storm and related toxicity that is associated with administration of soluble TLRLs. We conclude that the targeted delivery of adjuvants may improve the efficacy and safety of DC-based vaccines.

MicroRNA genes preferentially expressed in dendritic cells contain sites for conserved transcription factor binding motifs in their promoters.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a fundamental role in the regulation of gene expression by translational repression or target mRNA degradation. Regulatory elements in miRNA promoters are less well studied, but may reveal a link between their expression and a specific cell type. RESULTS: To explore this link in myeloid cells, miRNA expression profiles were generated from monocytes and dendritic cells (DCs). Differences in miRNA expression among monocytes, DCs and their stimulated progeny were observed. Furthermore, putative promoter regions of miRNAs that are significantly up-regulated in DCs were screened for Transcription Factor Binding Sites (TFBSs) based on TFBS motif matching score, the degree to which those TFBSs are over-represented in the promoters of the up-regulated miRNAs, and the extent of conservation of the TFBSs in mammals. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of evolutionarily conserved TFBSs in DC promoters revealed preferential clustering of sites within 500 bp upstream of the precursor miRNAs and that many mRNAs of cognate TFs of the conserved TFBSs were indeed expressed in the DCs. Taken together, our data provide evidence that selected miRNAs expressed in DCs have evolutionarily conserved TFBSs relevant to DC biology in their promoters.

Antigen localization controls T cell-mediated tumor immunity.

Effective antitumor immunotherapy requires the identification of suitable target Ags. Interestingly, many of the tumor Ags used in clinical trials are present in preparations of secreted tumor vesicles (exosomes). In this study, we compared T cell responses elicited by murine MCA101 fibrosarcoma tumors expressing a model Ag at different localizations within the tumor cell in association with secreted vesicles (exosomes), as a nonsecreted cell-associated protein, or as secreted soluble protein. Remarkably, we demonstrated that only the tumor-secreting vesicle-bound Ag elicited a strong Ag-specific CD8(+) T cell response, CD4(+) T cell help, Ag-specific Abs, and a decrease in the percentage of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells in the tumor. Moreover, in a therapeutic tumor model of cryoablation, only in tumors secreting vesicle-bound Ag could Ag-specific CD8(+) T cells still be detected up to 16 d after therapy. We concluded that the localization of an Ag within the tumor codetermines whether a robust immunostimulatory response is elicited. In vivo, vesicle-bound Ag clearly skews toward a more immunogenic phenotype, whereas soluble or cell-associated Ag expression cannot prevent or even delay outgrowth and results in tumor tolerance. This may explain why particular immunotherapies based on these vesicle-bound tumor Ags are potentially successful. Therefore, we conclude that this study may have significant implications in the discovery of new tumor Ags suitable for immunotherapy and that their location should be taken into account to ensure a strong antitumor immune response.

DC-STAMP interacts with ER-resident transcription factor LUMAN which becomes activated during DC maturation.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the professional antigen-presenting cells (APC) which efficiently prime the immune response or induce tolerance. We recently identified Dendritic Cell Specific TrAnsMembrane Protein (DC-STAMP), a novel 470 amino acid protein preferentially expressed by dendritic cells. Previously we demonstrated that DC-STAMP re-localizes towards the Golgi upon DC maturation. To identify proteins that interact with DC-STAMP, a yeast-2-hybrid analysis was performed. Here, we report a physically interacting partner of DC-STAMP in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), called LUMAN (also known as CREB3 or LZIP). LUMAN was previously described as an ER-resident transcription factor with unknown function. It is activated in a process called regulated intramembrane proteolysis (RIP), which involves translocation to the Golgi and subsequent proteolytic cleavage. The proteolytically activated form of the protein then translocates to the nucleus. Our data indicate that DC-STAMP plays an important role in the modulation of LUMAN activation. Moreover, we demonstrate that LUMAN is endogenously expressed by DC and becomes activated by RIP upon DC maturation induced by various different stimuli. These data define LUMAN/DC-STAMP as a novel regulatory circuit in DC.