A novel therapeutic to enhance the immunogenicity of breast cancer cells.

119Background: Breast cancer is a challenge for immunotherapy because of its inherent genetic heterogeneity and decreased immunogenicity. A possible solution is to generate dying breast cancer cells that operate like a vaccine to stimulate tumor-specific immunity. This is termed immunogenic cell death (ICD) and is characterized by a unique molecular signature, involving the release of molecules that attract and stimulate phagocytes and sensitize tumor cells to killing by natural killer (NK) cells. However, the current doses of drugs used to induce ICD may be too high to translate into clinically relevant regimens. Methods: Our group discovered a novel peptide, CT20p, that is effective at nanomolar concentrations and can be delivered to breast tumors using targeted nanoparticles. CT20p works by inhibiting a unique protein folding complex, called chaperonin-containing TCP-1 (CCT), which is highly expressed in cancer cells but not normal cells. Using triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and normal cell lines...