Enhancement of antitumor immunity by prolonging antigen presentation on dendritic cells

Vaccination with dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with antigenic peptides derived from various tumor antigens has great, but as yet significantly unrealized, potential in cancer treatment. Here, we describe a strategy for prolonged presentation of an MHC class I-restricted self-peptide on DCs through linkage of it to a cell penetrating peptide (CPP). DCs loaded with a peptide derived from tyrosinase-related protein 2 (TRP2) covalently linked to a CPP1 sequence retained full capacity to stimulate T cells for at least 24 h, completely protected immunized mice from subsequent tumor challenge, and significantly inhibited lung metastases in a 3-day tumor model. DCs pulsed with TRP2 alone failed to provide any of these protections. In addition, we demonstrate that both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were required for potent antitumor immunity. This CPP-based approach may be generally applicable to enhance the efficacy of DC-based peptide vaccines against cancer and other diseases.