Macroporous hydrogel-based mRNA cancer vaccine for in situ recruitment and modulation of dendritic cells

mRNA-based vaccines have demonstrated tremendous success in the era of covid-19, but their full potential for cancer treatment awaits to be realized. To address the low efficiency of conventional mRNA vaccines to encounter and become taken up by dendritic cells in the body, here we report a macroporous hydrogel-based mRNA vaccine that enables in situ recruitment and modulation of dendritic cells. Upon subcutaneous injection of macroporous hydrogels loaded with chemokines and neoantigen-encoding mRNA lipoplexes, high numbers of dendritic cells can be recruited to the gel, take up and process mRNA, and present mRNA-encoded neoantigens in situ, prior to their migration to draining lymph nodes to prime neoantigen-specific CD8⁺T cells. The gel vaccine significantly enhances the cytotoxic T lymphocyte response and antitumor efficacy against E.G7-OVA lymphoma and 4T1 breast cancer. Our dendritic cell-homing gel-based mRNA vaccine provides a new and universal avenue to enhancing the antitumor efficacy of mRNA vaccines. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Current mRNA cancer vaccines are typically formulated by incorporating tumor antigen-encoding mRNAs into lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) or condensing them with cationic polymers or lipids, which are then directly administered into the body. These formulations rely on the passive uptake of mRNA by antigen-presenting cells, mainly dendritic cells (DCs), in lymphatic tissues, but the efficiency of this process is often low. To address this limitation, we developed a DC-homing macroporous hydrogel-based mRNA vaccine that actively recruits DCs and enables in situ processing of pre-loaded mRNA lipoplexes, leading to enhanced cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses and antitumor efficacy. Our DC-homing gel-based mRNA vaccine provides a modular approach to enhancing the antitumor efficacy of mRNA vaccines for treating various types of cancers.