A purified acidic polysaccharide from Sarcandra glabra as vaccine adjuvant to enhance anti-tumor effect of cancer vaccine

  • Carbohydr Polym. 2021 Jul 1:263:117967. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.117967.
Wei Liu  1 ,  Xingqun Gong  1 ,  Jianhua Luo  1 ,  Liangliang Jiang  1 ,  Weisheng Lu  1 ,  Chun Pan  2 ,  Wenbing Yao  1 ,  Xiangdong Gao  3 ,  Hong Tian  4
Affiliations
  • 1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Druggability of Biopharmaceuticals and State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
  • 2. Department of Critical Care Medicine, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
  • 3. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Druggability of Biopharmaceuticals and State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 210009, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 4. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Druggability of Biopharmaceuticals and State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 210009, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 33858570 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.117967
Abstract

Immunological adjuvants are an important part of tumor vaccines and are critical for stimulating anti-tumor immune responses. However, the clinical needs of strong adjuvants have not been met. In this work, we found that the purified acidic polysaccharide from Sarcandra glabra, named p-SGP, is an ideal Adjuvant for tumor vaccines. Cancer vaccines could induce stronger humoral and cellular immune responses when they are adjuvanted with p-SGP. Compared with CpG, a well-studied Adjuvant, p-SGP significantly augmented the anti-tumor immunity of various Cancer vaccines, which is leading to noticeable inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis in tumor-bearing mice. Moreover, p-SGP promoted dendritic cells (DCs) maturation and Th1-polarized immune response. Toll-like Receptor 4 (TLR4) inhibitor TAK-242 could significantly inhibit the expression of mature molecules on the surface of DCs stimulated by p-SGP, suggesting that p-SGP could play the role of activating DCs through the TLR4 receptor. Results of RNA-seq showed that the Delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4) gene in the pathway Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation was significantly up-regulated in the DCs treated with p-SGP, suggesting that p-SGP has a unique mechanism of enhancing anti-tumor immunity.

Keywords
Adjuvant; Cancer vaccine; Immune response; Natural polysaccharide; Sarcandra glabra.
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