Facilitating the presentation of antigen peptides on dendritic cells for cancer immunotherapy using a polymer-based synthetic receptorThe authors declare no competing interests.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c7md00188f

The introduction of proteins into dendritic cells (DCs) ex vivo is a critical step for the DC-based immunotherapy of cancer. Here, we developed a biotin-modified polymer with multiple hydrophobic membrane anchors for cells that functions as a synthetic receptor for an antigen protein, ovalbumin (OVA), to introduce it efficiently into DCs compared with the conventional pulsing method. Our method showed significant advantages, including the rapid incorporation of OVA and the activation of antigen-specific T cells in a MHC-restricted manner. When mice were immunized by DCs treated with our method, tumor growth was completely suppressed, indicating that our method can be used to prepare adjuvant DCs. A synthetic receptor modified on DCs successfully facilitated cancer immunotherapy.