Liposome-Based Carbohydrate Vaccine for Simultaneously Eliciting Humoral and Cellular Antitumor Immunity

Tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen (TACA)-based cancer vaccines achieved promising results, whereas missing the T cell-mediated cellular immune response is still a crucial problem to be solved. Here, we have developed Tn antigen (GalNAc)-modified liposome-encapsulated TLR9 agonist CpG ODN adjuvant as a cancer vaccine. The glyco-liposome vaccines exhibit strong binding ability with an anti-Tn specific antibody and enhance antigen presentation of both bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and spleen B cells. In vivo immunogenicity studies have demonstrated that the glyco-liposome vaccines can significantly enhance the generation of high anti-Tn antigen antibody titers and further induce a Th1-dependent cellular immune response, evidenced by IFN-γ secretion in an immune coculture of immunized T cells with Tn-expression 4T1 cancer cells. Collectively, our results highlight a liposome-based carbohydrate vaccine as a promising platform, which can simultaneously elicit both humoral and cellular antitumor immunity.