Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), AP 70228, Cuidad Universitaria, CDMX, 04510, Mexico.
Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), AP 70228, Cuidad Universitaria, CDMX, 04510, Mexico.
Immunol Lett. 2018 Dec;204:47-54. doi: 10.1016/j.imlet.2018.10.008. Epub 2018 Oct 16.
Although various immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), used for the treatment of advanced cancer, showed remarkably durable tumor regression in a subset of patients, there are important limitations in a large group of non-responders, and the generation of novel immunogens capable of inducing protective cellular immune responses is a priority in cancer immunotherapy field. During the last decades, several types of vaccine immunogens have been used in numerous preclinical studies and clinical trials. However, although immunity to tumor Ags can be elicited by most vaccines tested, their clinical efficacy remains modest. Recently, we have developed an innovative vaccine concept, called Variable Epitope Libraries (VELs), with the purpose to exploit the high antigenic variability of many important pathogens and tumor cells as starting points for the construction of a new class of vaccine immunogens capable of inducing the largest possible repertoire of both B and T cells. In the present study, we decided to generate VEL immunogens derived from both classical and non-classical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. The MHC molecules, responsible for antigen presentation and subsequent activation of T lymphocytes, undergo multiple modifications that directly affect their proper function, resulting in immune escape of tumor cells. Two large VELs derived from multi-epitope region of H2-Kd and Qa-2 sequences (46 and 34 amino acids long, respectively), along with their wild type counterparts have been generated as synthetic peptides and tested in an aggressive 4T1 mouse model of breast cancer. Significant inhibition of tumor growth and the reduction of metastatic lesions in the lungs of immunized mice were observed. This study demonstrated for the first time the successful application of VELs carrying combinatorial libraries of epitope variants derived from MHC class I molecules as novel vaccine immunogens.
虽然各种免疫检查点抑制剂(ICIs)用于治疗晚期癌症,在一部分患者中表现出显著持久的肿瘤消退,但在很大一部分无反应者中存在重要的局限性,因此能够诱导保护性细胞免疫应答的新型免疫原的产生是癌症免疫治疗领域的优先事项。在过去几十年中,已经在许多临床前研究和临床试验中使用了几种类型的疫苗免疫原。然而,尽管大多数测试的疫苗都可以引发针对肿瘤抗原的免疫反应,但它们的临床疗效仍然有限。最近,我们开发了一种创新的疫苗概念,称为可变表位文库(VELs),目的是利用许多重要病原体和肿瘤细胞的高抗原变异性作为构建新一类疫苗免疫原的起点,这些免疫原能够诱导最大可能的 B 细胞和 T 细胞 repertoire。在本研究中,我们决定生成源自经典和非经典主要组织相容性复合体(MHC)I 类分子的 VEL 免疫原。负责抗原呈递和随后激活 T 淋巴细胞的 MHC 分子会发生多种修饰,这些修饰直接影响其正常功能,导致肿瘤细胞的免疫逃逸。两个源自 H2-Kd 和 Qa-2 序列的多表位区域的大型 VEL(分别为 46 和 34 个氨基酸长)及其野生型对应物已被作为合成肽生成并在 4T1 小鼠乳腺癌侵袭模型中进行了测试。在免疫接种的小鼠中,观察到肿瘤生长的显著抑制和肺部转移灶的减少。这项研究首次证明了携带源自 MHC I 类分子的组合表位变体文库的 VEL 作为新型疫苗免疫原的成功应用。