Theranostics 2022; 12(17):7603-7623. doi:10.7150/thno.75966 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Britton Chance Center and MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China.
2. School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China.
*These authors contributed equally to this work.
Tumor antigens (TAs)-induced humoral immune responses or TAs-specific antibodies have great application prospects for tumor therapy. However, more than half of TAs are intracellular antigens (intra-Ags) that are hardly recognized by antibodies. It is worthy to develop immunotherapeutic strategies for targeting intra-Ags.
Methods: We used the far-red fluorescent protein tfRFP as an intracellular antigen to immunize mice and generated a liver metastasis model by injecting tfRFP-expressing B16 melanoma cells (tfRFP-B16) via the spleen. Intravital molecular imaging and atomic force microscopy were performed to visualize the formation of tfRFP antigen-antibody complexes (also known as immune complexes) and punched holes in cell membranes.
Results: The results showed that the tfRFP-elicited immune responses inhibited the metastasis of tfRFP-expressing melanoma cells in the liver. In the circulating tfRFP-B16 tumor cells, elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced slight caspase-3 activation, a probable key factor in the cleavage of gasdermin E (GSDME) proteins and punching of holes in the tumor cell membrane. Increased tumor cell membrane permeability led to the release of intra-Ag tfRFP and binding with anti-tfRFP antibodies. The formation of tfRFP antigen-antibody complexes on the membranes of tfRFP-B16 cells activated complement components to form membrane attack complexes to further destroy the cell membrane. Neutrophils were rapidly recruited, and F4/80+ macrophages phagocytized the dying tumor cells.
Conclusion: The process of circulating tumor cell elimination in the tfRFP-immunized mice was triggered through the ROS-caspase-3-GSDME pathway to form intra-Ag-antibody immune complexes, which were involved in the activation of the complement system, as well as the recruitment of neutrophils and F4/80+ macrophages. An intra-Ag-elicited humoral immune response is a potent strategy for eliminating liver metastasis, which is unaffected by the liver immune tolerogenic status.
Keywords: intravital molecular imaging, intracellular antigens, humoral immunity, immune complexes, tumor liver metastasis