Demethylation of Cancer/Testis Antigens and CpG ODN Stimulation Enhance Dendritic Cell and Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Function in a Mouse Mammary Model

Background. Cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) are ideal targets for cancer immunotherapy in virtue of their restricted expression profile in normal tissues. However, CTA-targeted immunotherapy has been rather disappointing clinical setting for CTAs are downregulated by cytosine-phosphate-guanosine (CpG...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sun, Jun-Zhong, Gao, Lei, Gao, Li, Wang, Wei, Du, Nan, Yang, Juan, Wan, Ling, Liu, Fang, Wang, Li-li, Yu, Li
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3835908/
Description
Summary:Background. Cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) are ideal targets for cancer immunotherapy in virtue of their restricted expression profile in normal tissues. However, CTA-targeted immunotherapy has been rather disappointing clinical setting for CTAs are downregulated by cytosine-phosphate-guanosine (CpG) methylation in their promoter regions, so that tumor cells have low immunogenicity. Methods. We reinduced mouse CTA P1A through demethylation process and generated P1A-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTLs) by immunizing BALB/c (H-2d) mice with dendritic cells pulsed with a P1A-specific peptide and CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) immune adjuvant. Results. We found that demethylation and CpG ODN immune adjuvant stimulation facilitated DC maturation and enhanced the allogenic capacity of P1A-specific CTLs against target cells both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions. Our results suggested that CTA induction and immune adjuvant stimulation is a feasible strategy in cancer immunotherapy.