Grain-sized moxibustion enhances anti-tumor immunity of tumor cell lysate vaccine by inhibiting β-adrenergic signal pathway

Abstract

Abstract Tumor vaccines are an attractive immunotherapeutic strategy, but most of their clinical effect are poor. Thus, novel methods to improve antitumor immunity of tumor vaccines is urgently required. We previously found grain-sized moxibustion (gM), an ancient Chinese medicine therapy, could elicit efficient antitumor immune response. This led us to hypothesize that it may benefit tumor vaccines. In this study, we found that gM and TL vaccine synergistically inhibited the Lewis lung cancer (LLC) tumor growth, and this effect was abolished completely by CD4+ T cell depletion, partly by NK cell depletion, but not by CD8+ T cell depletion. Mechanically, gM and TL vaccine synergistically promoted DCs activation in tumor adjacent lymph node. Data of RNA-sequence showed gM could inhibit β-adrenergic signal pathway and the β-blocker propranolol elicited similar effect for TL vaccine to increase tumor regression and DCs activation. These results implied that gM enhanced TL vaccine by inhibiting β-adrenergic receptor and might be a good adjuvant for tumor vaccines.