Cancer immunotherapy represents a change in paradigm for cancer treatment by utilizing the host immune system to control cancer progression. Such therapy, including cancer vaccines, immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), and T cell adoptive therapy, is becoming one of the mainstream approaches for cancer treatment. Among them,cancer vaccines aim to generate long-lasting antitumor immunity by providing multiple tumor antigens for immune recognition and stimulating specific immunity against tumors. However, the research on tumor vaccine is still at an early stage. Except for Sipuleucel T, a dendritic cell vaccine for prostate cancer, most cancer vaccines have shown little clinical efficacy. Previous studies have reported that cancer vaccines can cooperate with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy to exert synergistic therapeutic effects by enhancing the number of infiltrating tumor-specific T cells as well as reducing the immune checkpoint molecules. However, further efforts are still demanded to address the current challenges in the field of cancer vaccines.
Recently, the research groups of Prof. Chao Wang reported an implantable autologous blood clot scaffold for enhanced cancer vaccination. It comprises a gel-like fibrin network formed by coagulation of blood to trap a large number of red blood cells (RBCs). Upon implantation, the cross-linked RBCs in the blood clot can attract and recruit a great number of immune cells, leading to the formation of an “immune niche.” Encapsulated with tumor-associated antigen and adjuvant, the blood clot vaccine (BCV) can induce a robust anticancer immune response. The BCV combined with immune checkpoint blockade effectively inhibits tumor growth in B16F10 and 4T1 tumor models. The proposed implantable blood clot cancer vaccine can be readily made by mixing the blood from patients with cancer with immunomodulating agents ex vivo, followed by reimplantation into the same patient for personalized cancer immunotherapy in future clinical translation.
The first author, Dr. Qin Fan and Qingle Ma, is from FUNSOM, Soochow University.
Link to paper: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/39/eabb4639
Link to Prof. Wang’s Group: http://web.suda.edu.cn/cwang/
Editor: Danting Xiang