Allogenic dendritic cell and tumor cell fused vaccine for targeted imaging and enhanced immunotherapeutic efficacy of gastric cancer

Dendritic cells (DCs) have displayed the promising potential in cancer immunity. How to enhance DCs immunotherapeutic effect in cancer targeted immunotherapy and prevention is still a great challenge. Herein, we report for the first time the allogenic DCs and tumor cell fused vaccine combined with cytokine induced killing cells (CIKs) for targeted imaging and enhanced immunotherapeutic efficacy of gastric cancer (GC). The fused vaccine was prepared by PEG mediated fusion between mature DCs and inactive gastric cancer MGC803 cells. The immunotherapeutic and prophylactic potential of the fused cells (FCs) were evaluated in tumor-bearing, post-surgery and tumor free mice models. The migration and homing process of near infrared region quantum dots (NIR-QDs) labeled FCs were investigated by real-time animal imaging system. Results showed that the FCs and FC + CIKs could trigger the tumor-specific CTLs against GC cells, target the tumor tissue initiatively and enhance the prophylactic effects, suppress the tumor growth remarkably in vivo. The potential mechanism is also investigated. In conclusion, allogenic DCs and tumor cell fused vaccine can be used for targeted imaging and enhanced immunotherapeutic efficacy of GC, and the FC + CIKs strategy own great potential in clinical applications such as early therapy and prevention of tumor-metastasis and relapse in near future.