PDL1-targeted vaccine exhibits potent antitumor activity by simultaneously blocking PD1/PDL1 pathway and activating PDL1-specific immune responses

Despite the clinical success of immune checkpoint blockade, only a subset of people exhibits durable responses, suggesting that an alternative immunotherapeutic strategy is required. This paper reported a two-in-one cancer vaccine that targets programmed death ligand 1 (PDL1) that blocks the PD1/PDL1 pathway and also activates antitumor immune response. The PDL1– NitraTh vaccine, which consists of the extracellular domain of PDL1 and nitrated T cell epitope, effectively broke the immune tolerance of PDL1 and elicited PDL1-specific humoral and cellular immunity. The treatment of PDL1–NitraTh exhibited potent antitumor activity. Moreover, immunization of PDL1 vaccine increased the infiltration of tumor lymphocytes and decreased the proportion of Treg cells in tumor tissues, suggesting that the vaccine may remodel the tumor microenvironment. The upregulation of PDL1 in tumor tissues was induced by PDL1–NitraTh vaccine but not in spleen and lymphomas. This upregulation of PDL1 is beneficial to the antitumor activity of PDL1-specific humoral and cellular immunity induced by PDL1–NitraTh. In summary, PDL1-targeted vaccine exhibits potent antitumor activity and may provide an alternative immunotherapy strategy for patients who are not sensitive to PDL1 antibody drugs. •PDL1 vaccine elicits PDL1 specific immunity and blocks PD1/PDL1 pathway.•PDL1 vaccine selectively upregulates PDL1 expression in TME.•Upregulation of PD-L1 expression provides positive feedback for eliciting an immune response against PDL1.