Gastrodin, a traditional Chinese medicine monomer compound, can be used as adjuvant to enhance the immunogenicity of melanoma vaccines.

Gastrodin (GAS) is a Chinese medicine with wide application for the treatment of nervous system disease. Previous studies reported that GAS exhibited non-specific immunomodulatory activities. To explore the effects of GAS as a vaccine adjuvant, the expression levels of CD80, CD86, MHCI and MHCII activated markers were detected after GAS treatment in vitro and in vivo, and the expression levels of IL-2 and TNF-α in splenocytes were detected after GAS treatment in vivo. Besides, the expression levels of IL-2 and IFN-γ in CD4+T cells and perforin, TNF-α and IFN-γ in CD8+T cells were detected. The effects of GAS on the survival rate and tumor size of tumor-challenged mice and the effect of cytotoxicity on CD8+T cells were also investigated. Our data showed that GAS ameliorated CD8+T cell mediated immune response and significantly improved protection of tumor-challenged animals. The results demonstrated that GAS is a potential adjuvant contributing to anticancer immunomodulation.