Recent clinical trials involving antigen-pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) have shown that cancer patients who have been vaccinated have a higher chance of survival. Moreover, the cytoplasmic transduction peptide (CTP) has an excellent transcellular efficacy and is also shown to be high in the cytoplasm, without migrating into the nucleus after transduction. This study investigated the impact of immunotherapy with DCs pulsed with CTP-fused protein antigen combined with the programmed blockade of cell death protein1 against malignant gliomas (anti-PD1). The West Blot confirmed the expression of antigen-related tumours (WT1 and BIRC5) and PDL1 on the target cells of glioblastoma (GBM). Flow cytometry was reported to validate the immunophenotypes of VaxDCs pulsed with CTP-fused protein antigens, and T polarisation assay cytokine output levels of enzymes-linked immune-sorbent assays (ELISA) were calculated.
Assays for cytotoxic activity of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) were conducted against malignant glioma cells that expressed target antigens in VaxDCs pulsed with CTP-fused protein antibiotics and anti-PD1. CTP protein antigen-fused VaxDCs revealed enhanced histocompatibility complex (MHC) expression and co-stimulation markers for DCs, leading to polarisation of th1-cytokine. The rise of the IFN-μ+ effector T cells in conjunction with the improved percentage specific lysis of GBM targets of antigen-specific CTL cells. The research indicated that using the DC vaccine preparation CTP-fused protein antigens alongside PD1 blockade could be an efficient technique for GBM immunotherapy.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2020.1732165
