Natural blood plasma-based hydrogels as tumor vaccines delivery systems to enhance biomimetic recruitment of antigen presenting cells for tumor immunotherapy

• DOI: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100497
• Publication Date: 2022-11-17T04:53:24Z
• Authors: Linghong Huang; Sufen Peng; Zonghua Liu; Juncheng Zhang; Ning Liu; Jiansheng Lin
• Keywords: Medicine (General); 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; APCs recruitment; R5-920; Tumor immunotherapy; QH301-705.5; Full Length Article; Biology (General); Tumor vaccines; Blood plasma hydrogel; 3. Good health

Tumor vaccines can inhibit or eliminate tumors by vaccinating hosts with tumor antigens to activate antigen-specific immune responses and have gained wild attention. However, their clinical application efficacy is often comprised due to the low safety and poor efficiency of vaccine adjuvants/carriers. Specifically, the adjuvants/carriers usually could not efficiently recruit antigen presenting cells (APCs) to capture the vaccines or directly damage these cells. Therefore, ideal tumor vaccine adjuvants/carriers should effectively recruit APCs and be friendly to the cells for well keeping their bio-functions. In this work, injectable natural blood plasma hydrogel was used for the first time to encapsulate tumor antigens and adjuvant (Mn2+) for the construction of a personalized tumor vaccine. This kind of natural hydrogel with extremely high bio-safety has great potential to friendly recruit APCs in a biomimetic manner by simulating the natural degradation process of subcutaneous blood stasis. The obtained results show that the natural blood plasma hydrogel-based tumor vaccines could significantly promote the recruitment of APCs, well maintain the immuno-functions of the cells, and finally induce efficient anti-tumor immune responses. Compared with traditional tumor vaccines, this natural blood plasma-based hydrogel provides a new strategy for the development of safe and effective tumor vaccines.