- Kim, Hyeong;
- Cho, Seongmin;
- Kim, Sang;
- Song, Ee;
- Jung, Wonchul;
- Shin, Yun;
- Suh, Ji;
- Choi, Jihye;
- Yoon, Ina;
- Kim, Uijoo;
- Ban, Hamin;
- Hwang, Sunkyo;
- Mun, Jeongwon;
- Park, Joohee;
- Kim, Nayoung;
- Lee, Youngjin;
- Kim, Myung;
- Kim, Sunghoon
Cancer vaccines have been developed as a promising way to boost cancer immunity. However, their clinical potency is often limited due to the imprecise delivery of tumor antigens. To overcome this problem, we conjugated an endogenous Toll-like receptor (TLR)2/6 ligand, UNE-C1, to human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV-16)-derived peptide antigen, E7, and found that the UNE-C1-conjugated cancer vaccine (UCV) showed significantly enhanced antitumor activity in vivo compared with the noncovalent combination of UNE-C1 and E7. The combination of UCV with PD-1 blockades further augmented its therapeutic efficacy. Specifically, the conjugation of UNE-C1 to E7 enhanced its retention in inguinal draining lymph nodes, the specific delivery to dendritic cells and E7 antigen-specific T cell responses, and antitumor efficacy in vivo compared with the noncovalent combination of the two peptides. These findings suggest the potential of UNE-C1 derived from human cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase 1 as a unique vehicle for the specific delivery of cancer antigens to antigen-presenting cells via TLR2/6 for the improvement of cancer vaccines.