RIPK1 as a potential target to augment DC efficacy in tumor immunotherapy

Dendritic Cell (DC)-based vaccine is a tumor immunotherapy approach with great potential, and improving the efficacy is an urgent problem to be solved. RIPK1 is an important regulator of inflammation and cell death, and may play a significant role in the tumor immune function of DCs. Our study found that DC-specific knockout of Ripk1 can inhibit tumor growth in mice by increasing DC immune infiltration and strengthening the interactions with cytotoxic T cells in the tumor microenvironment. The efficacy of DC-specific Ripk1 knockout was also validated in in vitro experiments, revealing the function of the Ripk1 knockout involved augment of antigen presentation capacity and activation status of DCs and their ability to activate Cd8⁺ T cells. Furthermore, this Ripk1 knocked DCs vaccine was employed to treat the tumor carry mice and it can effectively inhibit tumor growth compared with the wild type DCs vaccine. RIPK1 is expected to become a new target for improving the efficacy of DC vaccines.