Nanovaccines of polydopamine@tumor-associated antigens with robust prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy for cancer immunotherapy

Abstract

One of the most common strategies used in cancer immunotherapy is the development of vaccines based on tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). However, the limitations of low antigen loading efficiency and insufficient tumor targeting ability result in suboptimal therapeutic outcomes. Polydopamine (PDA) can conjugate with multiple functional molecules or moieties through covalent coupling reactions and serve as a crucial bridging component in the construction of nanovectors. In this study, we developed a nanovaccine (PDAT) by conjugating PDA with 4T1 tumor-associated antigens (4T1-Ag). PDAT possesses potent immunostimulatory ability, which could efficaciously activate powerful tumor-specific humoral and cellular responses to achieve high prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy in both in situ and distal tumor models, as well as in prophylactic murine models. This study provides a straightforward yet efficient strategy for fabricating nanovaccines with high antigen-loading capacity for tumor immunotherapy.