Enrichment and Expansion with Nanoscale Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells for Adoptive Immunotherapy

T cell immunoengineering with advanced biomaterials

Recent advances in biomaterials design offer the potential to actively control immune cell activation and behaviour. Many human diseases, such as infections, cancer, and autoimmune disorders, are partly mediated by inappropriate or insufficient activation of the immune system. T cells play a central role in the host immune response to these diseases, and so constitute a promising cell type for manipulation. In vivo, T cells are stimulated by antigen presenting cells (APC), therefore to design immunoengineering biomaterials that control T cell behaviour, artificial interfaces that mimic the natural APC-T cell interaction are required. This review draws together research in the design and fabrication of such biomaterial interfaces, and highlights efforts to elucidate key parameters in T cell activation, such as substrate mechanical properties and spatial organization of receptors, illustrating how they can be manipulated by bioengineering approaches to alter T cell function.

Artificial antigen-presenting cells expressing AFP(158-166) peptide and interleukin-15 activate AFP-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

Professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) are potent generators of tumor antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) for adoptive immunotherapy; however, generation of APCs is cumbersome, expensive, and subject to the tumor microenvironment. Artificial APCs (aAPCs) have been developed as a cost-effective alternative to APCs. We developed a cellular aAPC that efficiently generated alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-specific CTLs. We genetically modified the human B cell lymphoma cell line BJAB with a lentiviral vector to establish an aAPC called BA15. The expression of AFP_158-166-HLA-A*02:01 complex, CD80, CD86, and interleukin (IL)-15 in BA15 cells was assessed. The efficiency of BA15 at generating AFP-specific CTLs and the specific cytotoxicity of CTLs against AFP+ cells were also determined. BA15 cells expressed high levels of AFP_158-166 peptide, HLA-A2, CD80, CD86, and IL-15. BA15 cells also exhibited higher efficiency in generating AFP-specific CTLs than did dendritic cells. These CTLs had greater cytotoxicity against AFP+ hepatocellular carcinoma cells than did CTLs obtained from dendritic cells in vitro and in vivo. Our novel aAPC system could provide a robust platform for the generation of functional AFP-specific CTLs for adoptive immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Artificial Antigen-Presenting Cells for Immunotherapies

Artificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs) overcome many of the limitations of biologically based adoptive immunotherapy protocols. While these acellular systems can be designed with a variety of parameters, including material type, diameter, and proliferative signals for T cells, we outline methods to formulate and characterize a comprehensive polymeric microparticle aAPC platform. These aAPCs, which can be reproducibly fabricated in large quantities, efficiently stimulate antigen-specific T cell activation and proliferation by both paracrine cytokine signals and engagement of T cell surface proteins.

Nanomaterial-based cancer immunotherapy

This review focuses on summarizing the existing work about nanomaterial-based cancer immunotherapy in detail.

Nanoparticle-Based Modulation of the Immune System

The immune system is an incredibly complex biological network that plays a significant role in almost all disease pathogenesis. With an increased understanding of how this vital system operates, there has been a great emphasis on leveraging, manipulating, and/or supplementing endogenous immunity to better prevent or treat different disease states. More recently, the advent of nanotechnology has ushered in a plethora of new nanoparticle-based platforms that can be used to improve existing immunomodulation modalities. As the ability to engineer at the nanoscale becomes increasingly sophisticated, nanoparticles can be finely tuned to effect the desired immune responses, leading to exciting new avenues for addressing pressing issues in public health. In this review, we give an overview of the different areas in which nanoparticle technology has been applied toward modulating the immune system and highlight the recent advances within each.

Configuration-dependent Presentation of Multivalent IL-15:IL-15Rα Enhances the Antigen-specific T Cell Response and Anti-tumor Immunity

Here we report a "configuration-dependent" mechanism of action for IL-15:IL-15Rα (heterodimeric IL-15 or hetIL-15) where the manner by which IL-15:IL-15Rα molecules are presented to target cells significantly affects its function as a vaccine adjuvant. Although the cellular mechanism of IL-15 trans-presentation via IL-15Rα and its importance for IL-15 function have been described, the full effect of the IL-15:IL-15Rα configuration on responding cells is not yet known. We found that trans-presenting IL-15:IL-15Rα in a multivalent fashion on the surface of antigen-encapsulating nanoparticles enhanced the ability of nanoparticle-treated dendritic cells (DCs) to stimulate antigen-specific CD8(+) T cell responses. Localization of multivalent IL-15:IL-15Rα and encapsulated antigen to the same DC led to maximal T cell responses. Strikingly, DCs incubated with IL-15:IL-15Rα-coated nanoparticles displayed higher levels of functional IL-15 on the cell surface, implicating a mechanism for nanoparticle-mediated transfer of IL-15 to the DC surface. Using artificial antigen-presenting cells to highlight the effect of IL-15 configuration on DCs, we showed that artificial antigen-presenting cells presenting IL-15:IL-15Rα increased the sensitivity and magnitude of the T cell response, whereas IL-2 enhanced the T cell response only when delivered in a paracrine fashion. Therefore, the mode of cytokine presentation (configuration) is important for optimal immune responses. We tested the effect of configuration dependence in an aggressive model of murine melanoma and demonstrated significantly delayed tumor progression induced by IL-15:IL-15Rα-coated nanoparticles in comparison with monovalent IL-15:IL-15Rα. The novel mechanism of IL-15 transfer to the surface of antigen-processing DCs may explain the enhanced potency of IL-15:IL-15Rα-coated nanoparticles for antigen delivery.