Tocotrienol-adjuvanted dendritic cells inhibit tumor growth and metastasis: a murine model of breast cancer.

Tocotrienol-rich fraction (TRF) from palm oil is reported to possess anti-cancer and immune-enhancing effects. In this study, TRF supplementation was used as an adjuvant to enhance the anti-cancer effects of dendritic cells (DC)-based cancer vaccine in a syngeneic mouse model of breast cancer. Femal...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sitti Rahma Abdul Hafid, Srikumar Chakravarthi, Kalanithi Nesaretnam, Ammu Kutty Radhakrishnan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24069344/?tool=EBI
Description
Summary:Tocotrienol-rich fraction (TRF) from palm oil is reported to possess anti-cancer and immune-enhancing effects. In this study, TRF supplementation was used as an adjuvant to enhance the anti-cancer effects of dendritic cells (DC)-based cancer vaccine in a syngeneic mouse model of breast cancer. Female BALB/c mice were inoculated with 4T1 cells in mammary pad to induce tumor. When the tumor was palpable, the mice in the experimental groups were injected subcutaneously with DC-pulsed with tumor lysate (TL) from 4T1 cells (DC+TL) once a week for three weeks and fed daily with 1 mg TRF or vehicle. Control mice received unpulsed DC and were fed with vehicle. The combined therapy of using DC+TL injections and TRF supplementation (DC+TL+TRF) inhibited (p<0.05) tumor growth and metastasis. Splenocytes from the DC+TL+TRF group cultured with mitomycin-C (MMC)-treated 4T1 cells produced higher (p<0.05) levels of IFN-γ and IL-12. The cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) assay also showed enhanced tumor-specific killing (p<0.05) by CD8(+) T-lymphocytes isolated from mice in the DC+TL+TRF group. This study shows that TRF has the potential to be used as an adjuvant to enhance effectiveness of DC-based vaccines.
ISSN:1932-6203