TY - JOUR TI - Lymphangiogenesis-inducing vaccines elicit potent and long-lasting T cell immunity against melanomas AU - Sasso, Maria Stella AU - Mitrousis, Nikolaos AU - Wang, Yue AU - Briquez, Priscilla S. AU - Hauert, Sylvie AU - Ishihara, Jun AU - Hubbell, Jeffrey A. AU - Swartz, Melody A. T2 - Science Advances AB - In melanoma, the induction of lymphatic growth (lymphangiogenesis) has long been correlated with metastasis and poor prognosis, but we recently showed it can synergistically enhance cancer immunotherapy and boost T cell immunity. Here, we develop a translational approach for exploiting this “lymphangiogenic potentiation” of immunotherapy in a cancer vaccine using lethally irradiated tumor cells overexpressing vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) and topical adjuvants. Our “VEGFC vax” induced extensive local lymphangiogenesis and promoted stronger T cell activation in both the intradermal vaccine site and draining lymph nodes, resulting in higher frequencies of antigen-specific T cells present systemically than control vaccines. In mouse melanoma models, VEGFC vax elicited potent tumor-specific T cell immunity and provided effective tumor control and long-term immunological memory. Together, these data introduce the potential of lymphangiogenesis induction as a novel immunotherapeutic strategy to consider in cancer vaccine design. New approach for immune cell recruitment in therapeutic anticancer vaccines drives antigenically broad and long-lasting immunity. New approach for immune cell recruitment in therapeutic anticancer vaccines drives antigenically broad and long-lasting immunity. DA - 2021/03/01/ PY - 2021 DO - 10.1126/sciadv.abe4362 DP - advances.sciencemag.org VL - 7 IS - 13 SP - eabe4362 LA - en SN - 2375-2548 UR - https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/13/eabe4362 Y2 - 2021/03/25/23:54:04 ER -