Figure 4.

The CIRP-based vaccine enhances therapeutic and immune responses of ICPI-based protocols in mice with HCC. (A) C57BL6/J mice (n = 6–10/group) were injected in the liver with 5 × 10⁴ PM299L HCC cells. Four days later they received control or ICPI antibodies, or ICPI plus OVA-CIRP vaccine administered s.c. 5 times. Three weeks later livers were examined, analyzing the tumor volume. (B) Splenocytes from mice shown in A were stimulated with peptide OVA (257–264) or PM299L tumor cells and immune responses were analyzed by ELISPOT. (C–E) Expression of ICP PD-1, LAG3, and TIM3 was measured in tumor-infiltrating TetOVA⁺ CD8 T-cells in treated mice. (F) Proliferation (Ki67 expression) of TetOVA+ CD8 T-cells. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001.