Immunotherapy of Tumors with α2-Macroglobulin-Antigen Complexes Pre-Formed In Vivo

The cell surface receptor CD91/LRP-1 binds to immunogenic heat shock proteins (HSP) and alpha M-2 ligands to elicit T cell immune responses. In order to generate specific immune responses, the peptides chaperoned by HSPs or alpha M-2 are cross-presented on MHC molecules to T cells. While the immunogenic HSPs naturally chaperone peptides within cells and can be purified as an intact HSP-peptide complex, the peptides have had to be complexed artificially to alpha M-2 in previous studies. Here, we show that immunogenic alpha M-2-peptide complexes can be isolated from the blood of tumor-bearing mice without further experimental manipulation in vitro demonstrating the natural association of tumor antigens with alpha M-2. The naturally formed immunogenic alpha M-2-peptide complexes are effective in prophylaxis and therapy of cancer in mouse models. We investigate the mechanisms of cross-presentation of associated peptides and co-stimulation by APCs that interact with alpha M-2. These data have implications for vaccine design in immunotherapy of cancer and infectious disease.