Therapeutic cancer vaccines that harness the immune system to reject cancer cells have shown great promise for cancer treatment. Although a wave of efforts have spurred to improve the therapeutic effect, unfavorable immunization microenvironment along with a complicated preparation process and frequent vaccinations substantially compromise the performance.
Recenly, a research team led by prof. MA Guanghui and Prof. WEI Wei at School of Chemical Engineering of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences reported a novel microcapsule-based formulation for high-performance cancer vaccinations. The special self-healing feature provides a mild and efficient paradigm for antigen microencapsulation. After vaccination, these microcapsules create a favorable immunization microenvironment in situ, wherein antigen release kinetics, recruited cell behavior, and acid surrounding work in a synergetic manner. In this case, we can effectively increase the antigen utilization, improve the antigen presentation, and activate antigen presenting cells. As a result, effective T cell response, potent tumor inhibition, antimetastatic effects, and prevention of postsurgical recurrence are achieved with various types of antigens, while neoantigen was encapsuled and evaluated in different tumor models.
This work was published in Science Advances. PhD student YE Tong and XI Xiaobo at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences are the first authors, Prof. MA and Prof. WEI are the corresponding authors. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
