A Highly Active Form of XCL1/Lymphotactin Functions as an Effective Adjuvant to Recruit Cross-Presenting Dendritic Cells for Induction of Effector and Memory CD8+ T Cells

The chemokine receptor XCR1 is known to be selectively expressed by cross-presenting dendritic cells (DCs), while its ligand XCL1/lymphotactin is mainly produced by activated CD8⁺ T cells and natural killer cells. Recent studies have shown that XCL1-antigen fusion proteins efficiently induce CD8⁺ T cell responses by preferentially delivering antigens to XCR1⁺ DCs. However, XCL1 per se was found to be a poor adjuvant for induction of CD8⁺ T cell responses. XCL1 is unique because of its lack of one of the two disulfide bonds commonly conserved in all other chemokines and thus has an unstable structure with a relatively weak chemokine activity. In the present study, we generated a variant form of murine XCL1 termed mXCL1-V21C/A59C that contained a second disulfide bond to stabilize its chemokine structure. We confirmed that mXCL1-V21C/A59C had much more potent chemotactic and calcium mobilization activities than the wild type XCL1 (mXCL1-WT). Intradermal injection of mXCL1-V21C/A59C, but not that of mXCL1-WT, significantly increased the accumulation of XCR1⁺CD103⁺ DCs in the injection site, and most of the accumulated XCR1⁺CD103⁺ DCs were found to take up co-injected ovalbumin (OVA). Furthermore, recruited XCR1⁺CD103⁺ DCs efficiently migrated to the draining lymph nodes and stayed for a prolonged period of time. Consequently, mXCL1-V21C/A59C strongly induced OVA-specific CD8⁺ T cells. The combination of OVA and mXCL1-V21C/A59C well protected mice from E.G7-OVA tumor growth in both prophylactic and therapeutic protocols. Finally, memory CTL responses were efficiently induced in mice immunized with OVA and mXCL1-V21C/A59C. Although intradermal injection of OVA and polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)) as an adjuvant also induced CD8⁺ T cell responses to OVA, poly (I:C) poorly recruited XCR1⁺CD103⁺ DCs in the injection site and failed to induce significant memory CTL responses to OVA. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that a highly active form of XCL1 is a promising vaccine adjuvant for cross-presenting DCs to induce antigen-specific effector and memory CD8⁺ T cells.

Vaccination with Antigen Combined with αβ-ATP as a Vaccine Adjuvant Enhances Antigen-Specific Antibody Production via Dendritic Cell Activation

Adjuvants are required to enhance antigen-specific immune responses by vaccines. Extracellular ATP serves as a danger signal to alert the immune system of tissue damage by acting on P2X and P2Y receptors and triggers the activation of dendritic cells (DCs). Here we investigated the in vivo adjuvant efficacy of α,β-methylene-ATP (αβ-ATP), a non-hydrolysable form of ATP. We found that intradermal injection of ovalbumin (OVA), as a model antigen, combined with αβ-ATP, as the adjuvant, enhanced OVA-specific immune responses more than OVA alone. Additionally, DCs in the skin of mice injected with OVA and αβ-ATP had increased expression of major histocompatibility complex class II and co-stimulator molecules, CD40, CD80, and CD86, suggesting that αβ-ATP activated DC. These findings indicate that αβ-ATP functions as a potent vaccine adjuvant.