Whole cell tumor vaccine (WCTV) is a potential treatment modality that contains all relevant tumor associated antigens (TAAs) and can simulate a polyvalent immune response. Therefore, WCTV is common used in medical fields. However, the poor immunogenicity limits its application. Previous researches have attempted to introduce a cytokine adjuvant in WCTV to solve the problem but the high expectations decrease because of the single-adjuvant WCTV.

 Researchers with Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences prepared a nanoparticles-based multi-adjuvant WCTV modified with cell penetrating peptide and successfully imported exogenous granulocyte macrophage conlony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 2 (IL-2) into lewis lung carcinoma cell line (LLC) cells.

 Uniform-sized pristine nanoparticles (p-NPs) were prepared and then decorated with cell penetrating peptide (CPP). The results showed that as-designed nanoparticles could increase NP cellular uptake, facilitate GM-GSF and IL-2 internalization and keep cytokine activities.

 In vitro and in vivo evaluation of multi-adjuvant WCTV was performed. The data demonstrated good effects of multi-adjuvants on dendritic cells (DC) recruitment, antigen presentation, and T-cell activation. And the expected results on tumor growth suppression, metastasis inhibition, and recurrence prevention were achieved.

 This work provided a high-performance treatment for cancer immunotherapy. And future study will focus on the multi-adjuvant WCTV on other tumor types. The study has been published on Biomaterials, volume 34, issue 33, 8291-8300.