Enhancing Cancer Immunotherapy by Intracellular Delivery of Cell-Penetrating Peptides and Stimulation of Pattern-Recognition Receptor Signaling

Helen Yicheng Wang, Rongfu Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

The importance of T-cell-mediated antitumor immunity has been demonstrated in both animal models and human cancer immunotherapy. In the past 30 years, T-cell-based immunotherapy has been improved with an objective clinical response rate of up to 72%. Identification of MHC class I- and II-restricted tumor antigens recognized by tumor-reactive T cells has generated a resurgence of interest in cancer vaccines. Although clinical trials with cancer peptide/protein vaccines have only met a limited success, several phase II/III clinical trials are either completed or ongoing with encouraging results. Recent advances in immunotherapy have led to the approval of two anticancer drugs (sipuleucel-T vaccine and anti-CTLA-4 antibody) by the US FDA for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and melanoma, respectively. Intracellular delivery of antigenic peptides into dendritic cells (DCs) prolongs antigen presentation of antigen-presenting cells to T cells, thus further improving clinical efficacy of peptide/protein cancer vaccines. Because innate immune responses are critically important to provide sensing and initiating of adaptive immunity, combined use of cell-penetrating peptide vaccines with stimulation of innate immune signaling may produce potent antitumor immune responses. We will discuss the recent progress and novel strategies in cancer immunotherapy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)151-176
Number of pages26
JournalAdvances in Immunology
Volume114
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 28 2012

Keywords

  • Cancer vaccines
  • Cell-penetrating peptides
  • Immunological intervention
  • Immunotherapy
  • Innate immune signaling

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology
  • Immunology and Allergy

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