Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells that play a critical role in activating cellular and humoral immune responses. DC-based tumor vaccines targeting tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) have been extensively tested and demonstrated to be safe and potent in inducing anti-TAA immune responses in cancer patients. Sipuleucel-T (Provenge), a cancer vaccine of autologous DCs loaded with TAA, was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. Sipuleucel-T prolongs patient survival, but has little or no effect on clinical disease progression or biomarker kinetics. Due to the overall limited clinical efficacy of tumor vaccines, there is a need to enhance their potency. PD-L1 is a key immune checkpoint molecule and is frequently overexpressed on tumor cells to evade antitumor immune destruction. Repeated administrations of PD-L1 or PD-1 antibodies have induced sustained tumor regression in a fraction of cancer patients. In this study, we tested whether vaccinations with DCs, loaded with a PD-L1 immunogen (PDL1-Vax), are able to induce anti-PD-L1 immune responses. We found that DCs loaded with PDL1-Vax induced anti-PD-L1 antibody and T cell responses in immunized mice and that PD-L1-specific CTLs had cytolytic activities against PD-L1⁺ tumor cells. We demonstrated that vaccination with PDL1-Vax DCs potently inhibited the growth of PD-L1⁺ tumor cells. In summary, this study demonstrates for the first time the principle and feasibility of DC vaccination (PDL1-Vax) to actively induce anti-PD-L1 antibody and T cell responses capable of inhibiting PD-L1⁺ tumor growth. This novel anti-PD-L1 vaccination strategy could be used for cancer treatment and prevention.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide. Using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip, we analyzed plasma sample methylation to identify the SRCIN1 gene in breast cancer patients. We assessed SRCIN1-related roles and pathways for their biomarker potential. To verify the methylation status, quantitative methylation-specific PCR (qMSP) was performed on genomic DNA and circulating cell-free DNA samples, and mRNA expression analysis was performed using RT‒qPCR. The results were validated in a Western population; for this analysis, the samples included plasma samples from breast cancer patients from the USA and from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort. To study the SRCIN1 pathway, we conducted cell viability assays, gene manipulation and RNA sequencing. SRCIN1 hypermethylation was identified in 61.8% of breast cancer tissues from Taiwanese patients, exhibiting specificity to this malignancy. Furthermore, its presence correlated significantly with unfavorable 5-year overall survival outcomes. The levels of methylated SRCIN1 in the blood of patients from Taiwan and the USA correlated with the stage of breast cancer. The proportion of patients with high methylation levels increased from 0% in healthy individuals to 63.6% in Stage 0, 80% in Stage I and 82.6% in Stage II, with a sensitivity of 78.5%, an accuracy of 90.3% and a specificity of 100%. SRCIN1 hypermethylation was significantly correlated with increased SRCIN1 mRNA expression (p < 0.001). Knockdown of SRCIN1 decreased the viability of breast cancer cells. SRCIN1 silencing resulted in the downregulation of ESR1, BCL2 and various cyclin protein expressions. SRCIN1 hypermethylation in the blood may serve as a noninvasive biomarker, facilitating early detection and prognosis evaluation, and SRCIN1-targeted therapies could be used in combination regimens for breast cancer patients.

This study evaluated whether three-dimensional alginate–gelatin hydrogels (AGHs) crosslinked with calcium chloride (CaCl₂) enhance the osteo-odontogenic differentiation of odontoblast-like cells in vitro. Two seeding configurations were compared: inter-hydrogel (INT) surface seeding and intra-hydrogel (INTR) encapsulation. Here, the MDPC-23 cells were cultured in AGHs crosslinked with 70 or 100 mM CaCl₂ and assessed for proliferation, cytoskeletal morphology, alkaline phosphatase (ALPase) activity, osteo-odontogenic gene expression, and mineralized nodule formation. After 7 days, cell proliferation was significantly greater in the alginate–gelatin hydrogel (AGH) groups than in the control group. Cells in the intra alginate–gelatin hydrogel 100 (INTR-AGH100) remained predominantly rounded, whereas those in the inter alginate–gelatin hydrogel 100 (INT-AGH100) formed irregular clusters on the hydrogel surface. ALPase activity was highest in INTR-AGH100 at the early stage of culture. Both INT-AGH100 and INTR-AGH100 showed significantly increased expression of DSPP, DMP-1, BSP, OCN, OPN, and Runx-2, together with enhanced mineralized nodule formation. Although no significant differences were detected between the two seeding strategies in all assays, distinct morphological patterns were observed, and the INTR configuration showed relatively greater early differentiation-related activity. These findings suggest that 100 mM CaCl₂-crosslinked AGHs provide a favorable three-dimensional microenvironment under the present experimental conditions and represent a promising in vitro scaffold platform to support future studies of scaffold-guided dentin regeneration.