The anticancer peptide RT53 induces immunogenic cell death

In recent years, immunogenic cell death (ICD) has emerged as a revolutionary concept in the development of novel anticancer therapies. This particular form of cell death is able, through the spatiotemporally defined emission of danger signals by the dying cell, to induce an effective antitumor immune response, allowing the immune system to recognize and eradicate malignant cells. To date, only a restricted number of chemotherapeutics can trigger ICD of cancer cells. We previously reported that a peptide, called RT53, spanning the heptad leucine repeat region of the survival protein AAC-11 fused to a penetrating sequence, selectively induces cancer cell death in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, B16F10 melanoma cells treated by RT53 were able to mediate anticancer effects in a tumor vaccination model. Stimulated by this observation, we investigated whether RT53 might mediate ICD of cancer cells. Here, we report that RT53 treatment induces all the hallmarks of immunogenic cell death, as defined by the plasma membrane exposure of calreticulin, release of ATP and the exodus of high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) from dying cancer cells, through a non-regulated, membranolytic mode of action. In a prophylactic mouse model, vaccination with RT53-treated fibrosarcomas prevented tumor growth at the challenge site. Finally, local intratumoral injection of RT53 into established cancers led to tumor regression together with T-cell infiltration and the mounting of an inflammatory response in the treated animals. Collectively, our results strongly suggest that RT53 can induce bona fide ICD of cancer cells and illustrate its potential use as a novel antitumor and immunotherapeutic strategy.