Josi Romano, Speiser Daniel E, de Brot Simone, Vogt Anne-Cathrine, Sevick-Muraca Eva M, Tolstonog Genrich V, Bachmann Martin F, Mohsen Mona O
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, University Hospital of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Department of BioMedical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
iScience. 2024 Mar 6;27(4):109439. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109439. eCollection 2024 Apr 19.
The global incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV) associated head and neck carcinoma is on the rise, in response to this a tetravalent therapeutic vaccine named Qβ-HPVag was developed. This vaccine, utilizing virus-like particles (VLPs) loaded with toll-like receptor ligands and chemically coupled to four HPV16-derived peptides, demonstrated strong anti-tumor effects in a murine head and neck cancer model. Qβ-HPVag impeded tumor progression, increased infiltration of HPV-specific T cells, and significantly improved survival. The vaccine`s efficacy was associated with immune repolarization in the tumor microenvironment, characterized by expanded activated dendritic cell subsets (cDC1, cDC2, DC3). Notably, mice responding to treatment exhibited a higher percentage of migratory DC3 cells expressing CCR7. These findings suggest promising prospects for optimized VLP-based vaccines in treating HPV-associated head and neck cancer.
人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）相关头颈癌的全球发病率正在上升，对此研发了一种名为Qβ-HPVag的四价治疗性疫苗。该疫苗利用装载了Toll样受体配体并化学偶联到四种HPV16衍生肽的病毒样颗粒（VLP），在小鼠头颈癌模型中显示出强大的抗肿瘤作用。Qβ-HPVag阻碍了肿瘤进展，增加了HPV特异性T细胞的浸润，并显著提高了生存率。该疫苗的疗效与肿瘤微环境中的免疫重极化有关，其特征是活化的树突状细胞亚群（cDC1、cDC2、DC3）扩大。值得注意的是，对治疗有反应的小鼠中表达CCR7的迁移性DC3细胞百分比更高。这些发现表明基于VLP的优化疫苗在治疗HPV相关头颈癌方面具有广阔前景。
