Icaritin and intratumoral injection of CpG treatment synergistically promote T cell infiltration and antitumor immune response in mice

The development of combination therapy that can modulate the tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment is highly desirable for cancer immunotherapy. Icaritin (ICT), a hydrolytic product of icariin from genus Epimedium, has been used as an anti-cancer immunoregulatory agent for many types of cancers. Herein, we design a novel therapeutic strategy for mice melanoma that combines systemic administration of icaritin with intratumoral injection of unmethylated cytosine-guanine oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG). Icaritin induces tumor cell apoptosis and increases tumor immunogenicity. The combination of icaritin with CpG synergistically suppresses tumor growth and significantly prolonged survival time of B16F10 melanoma bearing mice. importantly, the anti-tumor effects of this combination strategy are associated with the reversing of immunosuppressive microenvironment through increased recruitment of functional DCs and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) in tumors, leading to the infiltration of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells expressing elevated levels of IFN-γ and TNF-α. Furthermore, the combination of icaritin with CpG augments the anti-tumor immune response to anti-PD-1/CTLA-4 immune checkpoint blockade treatment. These results support the combination of icaritin with CpG as a novel strategy to elicit effective T cell-mediated antitumor immune response.