Utilizing the nanosecond pulse technique to improve antigen intracellular delivery and presentation to treat tongue squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Tongue squamous cell carcinoma is the most common squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Immunotherapy has great potential in the treatment of tongue squamous cell carcinoma because of its unique advantages. However, the efficacy of immunotherapy is limited by the efficiency of antigen phagocytosis by immune cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We extracted dendritic cells (DCs) from human peripheral blood. Utilizing a nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF), we deliver the tumour lysate protein into DCs and then incubate the DCs with PBMCs to obtain specific T cells to kill tumour cells. The biosafety of nsPEF was evaluated by the ANNEXIN V-FITC/PI kit. The efficacy of lysate protein delivery was evaluated by flow cytometry. The antitumour efficacy was tested by CCK-8 assay. RESULTS: The nsPEF of the appropriate field strength can significantly improve the phagocytic ability of DCs to tumour lysing proteins and have good biosafety. The tumour cell killing rate of the nsPEF group was higher than the other group (p< 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Utilizing nsPEF to improve the phagocytic and presenting ability of DCs could greatly activate the adaptive immune cells to enhance the immunotherapeutic effect on tongue squamous cell carcinoma. Key words:Dendritic cell, nsPEF, immunotherapy, squamous cell carcinoma.