Chemically engineered glycan-modified cancer vaccines to mobilize skin dendritic cells

Dendritic cell (DC)–targeting vaccines show great promise in increasing antitumor immunity. Glycan-engineered vaccines facilitate both DC targeting and increased uptake by DCs for processing and presentation to CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells to induce tumor-specific T-cell responses. However, the complexity of various DC subsets in skin tissues, expressing different glycan-binding receptors that can mediate vaccine uptake or drainage of vaccines via lymphatics directly to the lymph node–resident DCs, complicates the success of vaccines. Moreover, the influx of inflammatory immune cells to the site of vaccination, such as monocytes that differentiate to DCs and coexpress glycan-binding receptors, may contribute to the strength of DC-targeting glycovaccines for future clinical use.