Laminarin promotes anti-cancer immunity by the maturation of dendritic cells

// Kyeongeun Song 1, 2, * , Li Xu 1, * , Wei Zhang 1 , Yun Cai 1 , Bian Jang 1, 2, 3, 4 , Junghwan Oh 2, 3, 4 and Jun-O Jin 1 1 Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 201508, China 2 Marine-Integrated Bionics Research Center, Pukyong National University, Busan, 48513, Korea 3 Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Marine-Integrated Biomedical Technology (BK21 Plus), Pukyong National University, Busan, 48513, Korea 4 Interdisciplinary Program of Biomedical Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan, 48513, Korea * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Jun-O Jin, email: junojin1@gmail.com Keywords: laminarin, adjuvant, anti-cancer, dendritic cell maturation, cytotoxic lymphocyte activation Received: December 28, 2016      Accepted: February 20, 2017      Published: March 14, 2017 ABSTRACT This research evaluates the effects of laminarin on the maturation of dendritic cells and on the in vivo activation of anti-cancer immunity. In vivo treatment of C56BL/6 mice with laminarin increased the expression levels of co-stimulatory molecules and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in spleen dendritic cells. Laminarin enhanced ovalbumin antigen presentation in spleen dendritic cells and promoted the proliferation of OT-I and OT-II T cells. Laminarin also induced the maturation of dendritic cells in tumor-draining lymph nodes and protected interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor-α and proliferation of OT-I and OT-II T cells in tumors. The combination treatment of laminarin and ovalbumin inhibited B16-ovallbumin melanoma tumor growth and its liver metastasis by antigen-specific immune activation, including cytotoxic T lymphocyte activation and interferon-γ production. Thus, these data demonstrated the potential of laminarin as a new and useful immune stimulatory molecule for use in cancer immunotherapy.