Self-assembled nanoparticles based on DNA origami and a nitrated T helper cell epitope as a platform for the development of personalized cancer vaccines

Abstract

Neoantigen vaccines constitute an emerging and promising cancer immunotherapy. However, not all neoantigens have anti-tumor activity, as poor CD4⁺ epitope recognition can lead to the lack of greatly limit the persistence of the CD8⁺ T cell response. Therefore, we designed a self-assembled nanoplatform hereinafter referred to as DNA-coupled nitrated T helper cell epitope nanoparticle (DCNP) based on DNA origami containing a nitrated CD4 + T cell epitope, which can facilitate the effective activation of neoantigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells. Moreover, we embedded the cytidine-phosphate-guanosine oligonucleotide (CpG ODN) motif sequence in the DNA skeleton to function as a built-in adjuvant to activate Toll-like receptor 9. DCNP can markedly improve adjuvant and neoantigen co-delivery to lymphoid organs and promote neoantigen presentation on dendritic cells. Moreover, DCNP induced robust, and long-lived neoantigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses that significantly delayed tumor growth. Further, these effects were largely dependent on the nitrated T cell epitope. Collectively, our findings indicate that DCNP is a promising platform that could improve the development of personalized therapeutic neoantigen vaccines for cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords: Cancer immunotherapy; DNA tetrahedral; Nanoparticle-based vaccine; Neoantigen delivery; Nitrated T cell epitope.