Plasmodium parasite as an effective hepatocellular carcinoma antigen glypican-3 delivery vector.

Plasmodium parasite as an effective hepatocellular carcinoma antigen glypican-3 delivery vector. Oncotarget. 2017 Apr 11;8(15):24785-24796 Authors: Liu Q, Yang Y, Tan X, Tao Z, Adah D, Yu S, Lu J, Zhao S, Qin L, Qin L, Chen X Abstract We have previously demonstrated that malaria parasite infection has an anti-tumor effect in a mouse model. This research aimed to investigate the possibility of using Plasmodium parasite as a novel vaccine vector for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) immunotherapy. We constructed a Plasmodium yoelii 17XNL strain (P.y) expressing murine glypican-3 (GPC3) protein (P.y-GPC3), and examined its therapeutic potency in a murine Hepa1-6-induced hepatoma model that highly expressed GPC3 protein. The prerequisites for invoking a CD8+ T cell response were assessed after P.y-based immunization, which included obviously increased concentrations of T helper cell type 1 (Th1)-associated cytokines, such as IL-2, IFN-γ and TNF-α, in serum and preferential expansion of the CD8α+ dendritic cell (DC) subset with higher expression of CD80 and CD86 molecules. Compared with uninfected and wild-type P.y-infected mice, a significant GPC3-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response was detected in P.y-GPC3 vaccinated mice. Furthermore, P.y-GPC3-based vaccination dramatically inhibited Hepa1-6-induced tumor growth in the implanted HCC and prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. We concluded that a Plasmodium-based vector...
Source: Oncotarget - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncotarget Source Type: research