Nanocarriers based on bacterial membrane materials for cancer vaccine delivery

Here we present a protocol for the construction and use of two types of nanocarrier based on bacterial membrane materials for cancer vaccine delivery. Cancer vaccines induce tumor regression through triggering the specific T-cell responses against tumor neoantigens, a process that can be enhanced by nanocarrier delivery. Inspired by the body’s natural immune defenses against bacterial invasion, we have developed two different types of nanocarrier based on bacterial membrane materials, which employ genetically engineered outer-membrane vesicles (OMVs), or hybrid membrane vesicles containing bacterial cytoplasmic membrane, respectively. The OMV-based nanocarriers can rapidly display different tumor antigens through the surface modified Plug-and-Display system, suitable for customized cancer vaccines when the tumor neoantigens can be identified. The hybrid membrane-based nanocarriers are prepared through fusion of the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane and the primary tumor cell membrane from surgically removed tumor tissues, possessing unique advantages as personalized cancer vaccines when the neoantigens are not readily available. Compared with chemically synthesized nanocarriers such as liposomes and polymer without intrinsic adjuvant properties, owing to the large amounts of pathogen-associated molecular patterns, the two nanocarriers can activate the antigen-presenting cells while delivering multiple antigens, thus inducing effective antigen presentation and robust adaptive immune activation. Excluding bacterial culture and tumor tissue collection, the preparation of OMV- and hybrid membrane-based nanocarriers takes ~8 h and 10 h for tumor vaccine construction, respectively. We also detail how to use these nanocarriers to create cancer nanovaccines and evaluate their immunostimulatory and antitumor effects.