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CANCER VACCINES

A prophylactic and a therapeutic against AML

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 4, pages 4–5 (2020)Cite this article

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An injectable biomaterial vaccine encapsulating antigens associated with acute myeloid leukaemia, dendritic-cell-targeting pro-inflammatory cytokines and an adjuvant protects mice from the disease.

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) has a dismal prognosis1; the majority of patients reaching complete remission after chemotherapy eventually relapse2. Allogeneic haematopoietic-stem-cell transplantation can lead to durable remission, particularly in AML patients at high risk. But the therapy is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality, owing to graft-versus-host disease and to increased infection risks; it is therefore usually not an option for elderly patients3. Alternatively, patients can be vaccinated with AML-associated antigens that prompt the patients’ immune system to attack AML cells4. The growing list of AML-associated antigens that have been identified, and progress in AML immunology, have boosted the development of AML vaccines5. Yet current vaccination attempts have generated suboptimal responses6, likely resulting from the inefficient delivery of the vaccine and from the insufficient activity of the vaccine components. David Mooney, David Scadden and co-workers now report in Nature Biomedical Engineering an injectable macroporous biomaterial vaccine that incorporates AML-associated antigens and multiple pro-inflammatory factors for boosting the immune responses to AML7. The immunoregulatory factors in the biomaterial modulate the local microenvironment to augment the infiltration and activation of dendritic cells (DCs), which subsequently activate tumour-specific T cells in the draining lymph nodes to generate robust and durable anti-AML immune responses. A single subcutaneous injection of the vaccine into mice, and subsequent injections of human AML cells, protected the mice from AML-cell engraftment and led to the development of transferable anti-AML immunity. When combined with standard induction chemotherapy (iCt), the vaccine caused the elimination of established leukaemia cells and prevented disease relapse in the absence of tumour-associated antigens in the vaccine formulation.

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Fig. 1: Subcutaneous administration of a macroporous biomaterial vaccine for robust and durable tumour-specific immune responses against AML.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Guojun Chen & Zhen Gu

  2. Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Zhen Gu

Authors
  1. Guojun Chen
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  2. Zhen Gu
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Correspondence to Zhen Gu.

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Chen, G., Gu, Z. A prophylactic and a therapeutic against AML. Nat Biomed Eng 4, 4–5 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-019-0509-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-019-0509-x

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