NoeDominguez-Romero Allan, Zamora-Alvarado Rubén, Servín-Blanco Rodolfo, Pérez-Hernández Erendira G, Castrillon-Rivera Laura E, Munguia Maria Elena, Acero Gonzalo, Govezensky Tzipe, Gevorkian Goar, Manoutcharian Karen
a Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas ; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); Cuidad Universitaria ; México D.F. , México.
Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2014;10(11):3201-13. doi: 10.4161/hv.29679.
The antigenic variability of tumor cells leading to dynamic changes in cancer epitope landscape along with escape from immune surveillance by down-regulating tumor antigen expression/presentation and immune tolerance are major obstacles for the design of effective vaccines. We have developed a novel concept for immunogen construction based on introduction of massive mutations within the epitopes targeting antigenically variable pathogens and diseases. Previously, we showed that these immunogens carrying large combinatorial libraries of mutated epitope variants, termed as variable epitope libraries (VELs), induce potent, broad and long lasting CD8+IFN-γ+ T-cell response as well as HIV-neutralizing antibodies. In this proof-of-concept study, we tested immunogenic properties and anti-tumor effects of the VELs bearing survivin-derived CTL epitope (GWEPDDNPI) variants in an aggressive metastatic mouse 4T1 breast tumor model. The constructed VELs had complexities of 10,500 and 8,000 individual members, generated as combinatorial M13 phage display and synthetic peptide libraries, respectively, with structural composition GWXPXDXPI, where X is any of 20 natural amino acids. Statistically significant tumor growth inhibition was observed in BALB/c mice immunized with the VELs in both prophylactic and therapeutic settings. Vaccinated mice developed epitope-specific spleen cell and CD8+ IFN-γ+ T-cell responses that recognize more than 50% of the panel of 87 mutated epitope variants, as demonstrated in T-cell proliferation assays and FACS analysis. These data indicate the feasibility of the application of this new class of immunogens based on VEL concept as an alternative approach for the development of molecular vaccines against cancer.
肿瘤细胞的抗原变异性导致癌症表位格局动态变化,同时通过下调肿瘤抗原表达/呈递逃避免疫监视以及免疫耐受,是设计有效疫苗的主要障碍。我们基于在靶向抗原可变病原体和疾病的表位内引入大量突变,开发了一种免疫原构建的新概念。此前,我们表明这些携带大量突变表位变体组合文库(称为可变表位文库,VELs)的免疫原可诱导强效、广泛且持久的CD8⁺IFN-γ⁺T细胞应答以及HIV中和抗体。在这项概念验证研究中,我们在侵袭性转移性小鼠4T1乳腺肿瘤模型中测试了携带生存素衍生CTL表位(GWEPDDNPI)变体的VELs的免疫原性特性和抗肿瘤作用。构建的VELs分别作为组合M13噬菌体展示文库和合成肽文库,具有10500和8000个个体成员的复杂性,其结构组成为GWXPXDXPI,其中X为20种天然氨基酸中的任何一种。在预防性和治疗性环境中,用VELs免疫的BALB/c小鼠均观察到具有统计学意义的肿瘤生长抑制。如T细胞增殖试验和FACS分析所示,接种疫苗的小鼠产生了表位特异性脾细胞和CD8⁺IFN-γ⁺T细胞应答,可识别87种突变表位变体中的50%以上。这些数据表明,基于VEL概念的这类新型免疫原作为开发抗癌分子疫苗的替代方法具有可行性。