Antibody-Targeted NY-ESO-1 to Mannose Receptor or DEC-205 In Vitro Elicits Dual Human CD8+ and CD4+ T Cell Responses with Broad Antigen Specificity

Immunization of cancer patients with vaccines containing full-length tumor Ags aims to elicit specific Abs and both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. Vaccination with protein Ags, however, often elicits only CD4(+) T cell responses without inducing Ag-specific CD8(+) T cells, as exogenous protein is primarily presented to CD4(+) T cells. Recent data revealed that Ab-mediated targeting of protein Ags to cell surface receptors on dendritic cells could enhance the induction of both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. We investigated in this study if these observations were applicable to NY-ESO-1, a cancer-testis Ag widely used in clinical cancer vaccine trials. We generated two novel targeting proteins consisting of the full-length NY-ESO-1 fused to the C terminus of two human mAbs against the human mannose receptor and DEC-205, both internalizing molecules expressed on APC. These targeting proteins were evaluated for their ability to activate NY-ESO-1-specific human CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in vitro. Both targeted NY-ESO-1 proteins rapidly bound to their respective targets on APC. Whereas nontargeted and Ab-targeted NY-ESO-1 proteins similarly activated CD4(+) T cells, cross-presentation to CD8(+) T cells was only efficiently induced by targeted NY-ESO-1. In addition, both mannose receptor and DEC-205 targeting elicited specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells from PBLs of cancer patients. Receptor-specific delivery of NY-ESO-1 to APC appears to be a promising vaccination strategy to efficiently generate integrated and broad Ag-specific immune responses against NY-ESO-1 in cancer patients.