Interleukin-12-anchored exosomes increase cytotoxicity of T lymphocytes by reversing the JAK/STAT pathway impaired by tumor-derived exosomes.

Tumor-derived exosomes express tumor antigens, leading to their promising utility as tumor vaccines, but they also can suppress T-cell signaling molecules and reduce cytotoxic effects. We investigated whether interleukin-12 (IL-12)-anchored exosomes (EXO/IL-12) reverse tumor exosome-mediated inhibition of T-cell activation and cytotoxicity was associated with inhibition of JAK3 and p-STAT5. A co-expression plasmid of pBudCE4.1/IL-12A/ IL-12B-GPI was constructed. EXO/IL-12 was identified by transmission electron microscopy and Western blotting, which induced proliferation and cytotoxicity of T-cells and were analyzed by CFSE-based flow cytometry. Expression of JAK2, JAK3 and p-STAT5 was detected by Western blotting. Our results showed that EXO/IL-12 was much more efficient in induction of the proliferation, release of IFN-gamma and cytotoxic effect of T lymphocytes than conventional exosomes in vitro. Exosomes inhibited the expression of JAK3 and phosphorylation of STAT5 in high doses in T-cells, but not JAK2, while EXO/IL-12 had much less attenuated reduction of the expression of p-STAT5. The enhanced cytotoxic effects of T lymphocytes might partly depend on EXO/IL-12 reversing the suppressed expression of p-Stat5 by Jak2/Stat5 pathway. These findings might provide an alternative approach for developing exosomes into tumor vaccines.