Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs), such as c-di-GMP (CDG), are agonists for stimulator of interferon genes (STING) and are promising for cancer immunotherapy. Yet, the therapeutic efficacy of CDNs has been limited by poor delivery and biostability. Here, STING-activating DNA nanovaccines (STING-NVs) are developed, which biostabilize, deliver, and conditionally release CDG in the endosome of immune cells, elicit potent antitumor immune responses in murine and human immune cells, ameliorate immunosuppression in vitro and in the tumor microenvironment, and mediate potent cancer immunotherapy in a murine melanoma model. STING-NVs have PLA-b-PEG in the core and cytosine (C)-rich i-motif DNA on the surface. i-Motif DNA undergoes characteristic pH-responsive conformational switch, allowing efficient CDG loading via C:G base pairing at physiological pH, and CDG release in sensitive response to acidic environment such as cell endosome. STING-NVs protect CDG from enzymatic degradation. STING-NVs facilitate cell delivery. Remarkably, STING-NVs promote the endosome escape of CDG by ninefold, and potentiate antitumor immunity. STING-NVs repolarize immunosuppressive M2-like macrophages into antitumor M1-like macrophages in vitro and in the tumor microenvironment of melanoma. In a poorly immunogenic murine melanoma model, intralesional STING-NVs outperform liposomal CDG and fluoride-CDG for melanoma immunotherapy. These results suggest the great potential of STING-NVs for cancer immunotherapy.
Keywords: DNA engineering; STING agonists; cancer immunotherapy; i-motif; nanovaccines.