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Immunotherapy

Cancer vaccine triggers antiviral-type defences

Nature volume 534, pages 329–331 (2016)Cite this article

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An immunotherapy approach targets nanoparticles to dendritic cells of the immune system, leading to an antitumour immune response with antiviral-like features. Initial clinical tests of this approach show promise. See Letter p.396

Preventive vaccines are perhaps the most effective form of immunotherapy. But on page 396, Kranz et al.1 describe a vaccination strategy against cancer that targets existing tumours by recruiting immune mechanisms normally used against viral infection. The authors used nanoparticles carrying tumour RNA to simulate the intrusion of a viral pathogen into the bloodstream. When the nanoparticles reach lymphoid tissues, including the spleen and lymph nodes, they activate antiviral defence mechanisms in immune cells such as dendritic cells. The dendritic cells translate RNA obtained from the nanoparticles to express and present tumour antigens (molecules used by the immune response as attack targets) to the T cells of the immune system, priming these cells to launch an antitumour immune response.

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Figure 1: An antitumour nanoparticle vaccine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jolanda de Vries and Carl Figdor are in the Department of Tumor Immunology, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, 6525 GA Nijmegen, the Netherlands.,

    Jolanda De Vries & Carl Figdor

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  1. Jolanda De Vries
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  2. Carl Figdor
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jolanda De Vries or Carl Figdor.

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De Vries, J., Figdor, C. Cancer vaccine triggers antiviral-type defences. Nature 534, 329–331 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18443

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