Immunotherapeutic effects on murine pancreatic carcinoma by β-elemene combined with dendritic cells modified with genes encoding interleukin-23.

The dendritic cell vaccine is a treatment vaccine with potent clinical applications. Functional cytokines can enhance dendritic cell anti-tumor immune responses. This experiment was conducted to study the effects of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BM-DCs) modified with genes encoding murine interleukin-23 (IL-23) on murine pancreatic carcinoma, and effects of the treatment of pancreatic carcinoma with β-elemene combined with IL-23-modified dendritic cell vaccine. The murine IL-23 cDNA was sub-cloned into a dual-expression vector. DCs were pulsed with tumor cell lysate after being modified wth IL-23. Mice were divided into groups which were injected with IL-23-transduced DC vaccine, non-transduced DC vaccine and sodium respectively. The preventive immune and immunotherapeutic effects of DC vaccines on mice and cytokine release in vivo were then assessed. Results showed inhibitory effects on tumor cells and increased survival time in the experimental group treated with the vaccine combined with β-elemene. The IL-23 protein apparently increases the antigen presenting ability of DCs. After injection with DC vaccines, IFN-γ production in the treatment group was significantly increased as compared with that in the control group (P<0.01), and IL-4 production was decreased as compared with that in the control group (P<0.05). Tumor size was obviously reduced, and survival time clearly prolonged in the group with β-elemene combined with DC vaccine, in comparison to the other treatment groups and the control (P<0.01). IL-23-modified dendritic cell vaccines enhance specific Th1-type and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses against pancreatic carcinoma cells, and induce not only auto-immune ability but also preventive immunity against pancreatic carcinoma implanted in mice. β-elemene has great anti-tumor collaborative functions.